#for anyone curious- they’re both rescues !! they were both brought into this rescues care at a p young age

[todaysbird]

Today’s Bird is: this pair of Eurasian Griffon Vultures (Gyps fulvus)!

[midorishinji]

Disappearing act - chapter XI

Geto observed her more carefully, trying to decide whether she was being serious or not. — Killing non-sorcerers? — It's an option, but I don't take it seriously. Do you? — Yuki pressed him with a loaded question. Suguru Geto thought of them all — Shoko, Nanami, Haibara, Riko, Kuroi, his parents, Satoru — and his chest filled with an unbearable pain, but also an incredibly monumental love, so much that it felt like it would stretch and burst at the seams of his heart that could not contain it. He thought of his father again, reading him "Night on the Galactic Railroad" when he was young, and he thought of Satoru reading his own copy now during his leisure nights. He thought of Giovanni and Campanella, and of the Scorpio of the night sky, and of the nobility of sacrifice, of setting yourself on fire to warm the world.

Satosugu ｜Finalized｜Long fic｜Also being published in Portuguese and on AO3

Chapters: I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII - VIII - IX - X - XI - XII - XIII - XIV - XV - XVI - XVII

Chapter XI: good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience, this is the ideal life

Shoko was examining Mimiko and Nanako Hasaba, the two children rescued by Geto. Normal reflexes, good vision, and motor coordination as expected for children of that age — all this also taking into consideration the state of starvation in which they were before being brought to Tokyo. They would probably make a full recovery, was her verdict.

Taking two lollipops from a glass jar, Ieiri handed one to each of the girls, as a reward for good behavior during the exam. Both kids accompanied those present in the infirmary — Shoko, Suguru, Satoru, and Professor Yaga — with attentive and curious eyes, although still suspicious.

— So they're okay, right? — Suguru asked, just to be sure.

Shoko took a lollipop out of the jar for herself; maybe the reward wasn't always for the patients, the three men imagined, seeing that the container was half empty, and she could open the plastic packaging with a single pull using her teeth. — Yeah. They’re still a little weak because they’ve spent days without eating or drinking water, but other than that, nothing unusual. — she explained, turning to the girls — Before that, how did you get food? Did any adults take care of you?

Nanako, the more extroverted of the two, responded. — Our teacher secretly brought us food.

Someone in the village, at least, didn't agree to pretend that two children who could barely take care of themselves didn't exist, Suguru thought. A chill made him shiver as he remembered that he had come within a hair's breadth of eliminating all the villagers, including the poor teacher who did what little she could for the girls.

Satoru played with a stethoscope, trying to listen to his own heartbeat. Professor Yaga, annoyed with his usual antics, took the equipment from his hands, ruining his fun. This made Nanako giggle, finding all those weird grown-ups very funny.

— Well, the social worker must be waiting for my call. — the professor said, using this as a cue to leave.

— Where are we going now? — Mimiko asked Geto, her eyes worried.

He smiled kindly. — We're going to get you a house, here in Tokyo. The social worker will help with this, she is a person who helps children.

— But I don't wanna leave...

That request could break anyone's heart. Not even Satoru, who always took everything as a joke, could avoid feeling the weight of the situation: — It's for a short time, just for a few days... We'll pick you up later, right, Suguru? Megumi will like having more sisters, you guys are the same age, you’ll get along well. And Tsumiki-chan is older, but she's a responsible kid...

Geto wanted to tell him not to promise what he couldn't deliver, but he quickly realized he really was serious. And the mention of other children was enough to awaken a feeling of joy, curiosity and belonging among the girls: — Who is Megumi? — Nanako asked.

Satoru thought for a moment, a confused expression on his face. — He's... Well, technically, I guess I'm his stepdad. But that doesn’t seem right, huh.

— Dad... But you're the same age as uncle Geto, aren't you? How can you be someone's dad? — Mimiko said, with the frankness that only a child could have.

Shoko and Suguru laughed, and even Satoru couldn't help but smile at such an honest question. — Hey…! He is my adopted son, kinda. I knew his father, and Megumi and Tsumiki needed a home, so I adopted them. In fact, I think the two of them are more like my younger siblings than anything else, especially because they don't respect me... — Gojo explained. Tsumiki found him amusing, and Megumi found him cringe-inducing, and neither of them took him seriously considering Satoru was about the same level of maturity as them.

— Don't worry, Mimiko-chan, we also wonder how he can be someone's dad or stepdad or whatever when he has like, zero common sense. — Ieiri replied, with a sarcastic smile, while casually biting onto the lollipop.

This didn't shake Satoru's confidence. — I don't need to have common sense, Suguru already has common sense for both of us. — he said, in a dramatic pose.

Someone knocked on the door, announcing his entry: it was Professor Yaga, and from the expression he had on his face, the three sorcerers understood what he wanted. Geto looked at the twins, and at Masamichi, and left with both of them through the door, following the teacher. The social worker had arrived… The silence that followed inside and outside the medical room was deafening.

Satoru threw himself into a chair, the smile that had previously been on his face instantly dissipating. — I hope we can get custody of both of them. Suguru will never forgive me if I don't succeed, so I can't fail.

— You know it's not like that... — Shoko tried to cheer him up — He never really gets mad at you, even when you do everything you can to test his patience.

— But it's different, Shoko. I promised him, so I can't fail. If it comes to that, I’ll bribe the entire child protective services department, the government, I don't know. — Gojo explained.

Ieiri offered him a lollipop as a consolation prize. — You'll get custody, I know, don’t worry about it. Besides, you were so happy when you got here after lunch, don't let that fear ruin your joy.

— We went out for lunch, we went to eat instant ramen at the convenience store. And now that we're suspended for a month, it means we can spend a lot of time together, just like in the old times! — Satoru's radiant smile revealed how he felt at the mere memory of the facts. It was indisputable, and perhaps only he (and Geto) didn't realize the obvious.

— And you're this happy just because you ate instant noodles? — Shoko asked, trying to get him to hand over the details.

This only spurred him to spill the beans. — No, it's just... Suguru was arguing with me to eat better, and he said he cares about me, Shoko! How do you want me not to be happy?

Ieiri made a disgusted face. — I tell you all the time to stop eating like a raccoon and you don't care, but when it's Suguru you’re fawning all over...

— It’s different.

— Of course it's different, you're in love with him.

Satoru made a mocking face. — Of course not, that’s bullshit, Shoko…!

— Bullshit? Haven't we already had this conversation like five times before, Satoru?

— I'm not in love with Suguru, of course not, it's just… What we have is different. We understand each other like no one else, you know, and I would trust him with my life, in a way that I wouldn't trust anyone else. When we go out to do anything, it's always better when he's there, and when he isn't, I think about how much better it would be if he was there with me, and when I go to sleep, I think about him, and I always sleep better when we're together, and I feel like an idiot for smiling when he says these things to me, like when he says he cares about me, or when he promises he'll always be with me, you know? And at least three times a day I need to concentrate on not saying all of this to him accidentally, because I don't know... — pausing to take a breath, Satoru fell silent for a moment, and suddenly panic was written all over his face. — Oh my God, Shoko…! I think I really am in love with Suguru!

The unsurprising revelation did not spur any dramatic reaction from Shoko. — I know, that's what I've been trying to tell you for a long time... You should tell him all this, and not me.

Satoru jumped up from his chair, pacing nervously from one side of the infirmary to the other. — Tell him…?! I can't, I... What if he doesn't feel the same? What if I screw up it all up?

For those who knew both sides of the situation, someone who could judge it as an outsider, it was quite obvious that Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto were in love with each other and were simply too obtuse to realize it. All this doubt and torment could easily be resolved with a few words, and yet this tug-of-war of secret emotions remained. Three words that could bring relief and end that painful tango, three words that insisted on being silenced and swallowed time after time.

— Satoru, just pay attention to what you’re saying. Do you really think Suguru doesn't...? Oh, you know what, you two are impossible, I give up! — Shoko replied, raising her arms high in a gesture of surrender and frustration.

[maxtothemax]

okay buckle up kiddos it’s time for me to subject you to this

the premise is at the beginning of TAE, when the erasers come after the flock, they only end up capturing nudge. (they had intended to capture the whole flock, while prioritizing angel, but nudge is the only one they get.)

so: nudge is alone at the school, fending for herself. she’s trying her best to escape, but she’s also confident that the flock is coming to rescue her. max has a plan, and the flock is going to come and break nudge out. she just has to hang in there until they arrive.

in the meantime, nudge discovers that jeb is still alive. she’s shocked, and she’s upset that he’s a whitecoat (and maybe he never stopped being one) and it would be nice to see a familiar face, except that jeb has never been very good at comforting anyone, much less her. so she’s more angry at him than relieved that he’s alive, which she has a lot of complicated, guilty feelings about.

most of the whitecoats are awful to her, but there’s one who’s nice: dr. martinez. (yes, she still works for the school in this one. i could go into more detail, but the short version is that she’s just too entangled in it and knows way too much for itex to let her leave.) dr. martinez does her best to be on nudge’s side while also not making her superiors suspicious of her. when she sees an opportunity for it, she takes a risk and tries to help nudge escape.

but they fail. nudge is locked back up in the lab, and the school decides to punish dr. martinez by going after her daughter. ella is kidnapped and brought to the school, where she’s experimented on and given wings.

given the circumstances, nudge isn’t exactly happy that ella is there, but it’s nice to have a new friend. nudge teaches ella how to take care of her new wings (with the limited resources they have available to them), and comforts her as she processes everything that’s happened to her. ella has a lot of complicated feelings about her mom now, and it’s hard to process any of it, especially when she’s not really allowed to see her mom (even though dr. m is still being forced to work in the lab).

also, at some point there’s a new bird girl who gets transferred to the school from the institute in new york (yes, she’s the one that the flock runs into in canon at the end of TAE). nudge is very excited to meet someone from new york, but disappointed that the new bird girl hasn’t actually seen the city. still, nudge and ella are glad to have a new friend, and they’re a lot more welcoming than the bird girl (i’m going to call her ava for now) had expected from this new lab.

nudge tells ava about the flock, and living in the outside world, and promises both of her new friends that they’re going to get out of here and live in the outside world, too. either they’re going to escape, or the flock is going to come rescue them. although, the more time passes, the more nervous nudge gets about the prospect of getting rescued. it’s been weeks/months now - where is the flock? did they get hurt?

finally, one day, the flock arrives in cages - max, fang, iggy, gazzy, and angel - all bruised and beaten but relatively okay. nudge is relieved and excited to see them (although obviously sad that they got captured instead of breaking in to rescue her) and excited to introduce them to her new friends, but also curious to hear about where they’ve been all this time.

and they all kind of exchange these looks with each other when she asks them about that, and then max slowly starts to explain that they’ve spent most of their time running from the erasers. and then, after some more questioning, gazzy finally blurts out, ��max said a rescue mission wasn’t a priority.”

dead silence, for a long time. “oh,” nudge says, very quietly. ava and ella are glaring absolute daggers at max, while reaching through the bars of their cages to comfort nudge.

max tries to do damage control, and fails miserably. “listen, we were running for our lives, the erasers were gonna kill us, you have to understand -”

and nudge cuts in, “you were running to stay out of this place, which is where i’ve been this whole time. and you couldn’t be bothered to get me out?”

max tries to defend herself, but ella glares at her and says, “i think you’ve said enough,” which finally gets her to shut up.

eventually, nudge ends up putting aside her heartbreak over the situation in order to work with everyone else to escape. it’s a narrow escape, they almost don’t make it, but finally everyone gets out in one piece, and they fly as far as they can away from the school.

finally they all stop to gather their bearings and figure out what to do next. angel admits that she overheard some information in the whitecoats’ thoughts about the flock’s parents (idk when that happened, but it did, bear with me here). she gives nudge the information that she has on her parents, and then says, you know, whatever she said in TAE to convince max to take everyone to new york, to the institute. max says it’s decided that the flock is going to new york.

“okay,” nudge says, standing aside with ella and ava. “but we’re not going with you.” she gives the reasoning that her parents are in arizona, and anyway, ava wouldn’t want to go back to the institute. ava, knowing what the place is like, also cautions max against going there.

max tries to argue, thinking that nudge can’t be serious about this - after all, she’s still a part of the flock, right? but after everything that happened ... nudge really isn’t still part of the flock, and she doesn’t want to be, if they’re not going to respect and prioritize her, or incorporate her new friends.

max gets angry about the accusation, but nudge’s mind is made up. finally max storms off, with the rest of the flock in tow, all of them with varying degrees of uncertainty about leaving nudge behind.

but nudge isn’t uncertain at all. sad, but not uncertain. with ava and ella at her side, she begins heading for arizona, and answers about her parents.

end of part 1

if my brain could focus on doing a nudge-centric rewrite of maximum ride i would be so fucking powerful. it would be the best middle grade/YA adventure story ever told and i fully believe nudge deserves to be the protagonist of her own story. it would be fucking incredible

[elias-code]

The Swine’s Scribe

Characters: c!Technoblade x gn!reader, an appearance by Philza

Background: You're in Techno's cabin after getting the rest of his wolves from L’Manburg after the second war. You were originally rescued by Techno from a blizzard after running from the first L'Manburg explosion (your house was among those destroyed.)

Summary: When Techno gets back from the second L'Manburg war, he lets go of a lot of emotions by ranting to you. You, being concerned about his mental wellbeing, ask if you can do anything for him, and eventually, he kisses you, which leads to some close-calls with Phil and a whole lot of smut and fluff.

Wordcount: 3291 (according to google docs lmao)

Warnings: NSFW, swearing, blood/wounds, biting, getting caught

I REPEAT NSFW, MINORS DO NOT INTERACT

-------------------------------- Enjoy :) ----------------------------------

Ever since Techno brought you in from the cold months ago, you've been doing little chores for him in a way to repay his kindness. Even though he was the one who summoned the withers after the initial explosions, you felt safe around him. It had been hard to get used to at first, but now you felt comforted by his presence.

For the past week, you've been writing his journal for him after he broke his hand sparring with Phil. His hand has since healed, but you insisted that you do it for him, and he put up little protest.

"It was stressful, seeing your friends leave like that, in the blink of an eye. I don't trust anyone anymore, not after Tommy betrayed me. I gave him a roof over his head, hid him from Dream, one of the most powerful people on the server, AND I trusted him with my Axe of Peace." Technoblade's tone was strained and he let out a huff.

"Techno," you empathised, "are you sure you're okay after today?"

"I'm fine, please keep writing." He only ever said please when he was really serious, clearly, he was not interested in talking.

"Now, I refuse to bow to the voices. They want blood and I won't let them. Too many allies have died for me or have disappeared onto the other side, only to reemerge when they need ME, never when I need THEM."

Again, you piped in, "Techno, you're clearly not ok," his pale skin was flushed red and his eyebrows knit together into a grimace, "If there's anything I can do to help, please tell me."

He went silent.

"You don't have to talk about it if it's really getting to you... Or you could let it out. Either way, I'm here to help," You said.

"I'll think about it. For now, keep writing,"

For another half hour, he ranted about the destruction of L'Manburg and his dramatic reenactment was accented by occasional yelling and hand gestures. Suddenly, he stops speaking and gets a puzzled look on his face, "Um, what- what's the correct phrasing for - I guess - 'horny for violence'?" The tips of his ears were bright red, matching the blush now forming on his cheeks.

You chuckle, "I think it's hungry for violence..."

"Ah, that's it," Techno states, and then he completed his recounting of events. There's a bubble of silence in the air and he bursts it by asking, "Do you have any thoughts?"

"You know my thoughts, Techno..."

"I think I know, but give me words, I can't read minds."

"You're not healthy, you need help. You need better friends and a proper support system. Right now you really only have Phil, and I guess me if I even count."

"You count."

Now it was your turn to blush, but you continue, "Either way, that's not enough! You deserve more than you're getting. I can tell that even without the things you've had me write down. You're carrying so much weight, Tech."

"I didn't know you cared," he seems touched by your words, "I suppose I don't know a whole lot about you."

"And yet, you trust me with your deepest, darkest secrets, Technoblade."

"One thing I can trust you to do is help me with my armour."

He was still wearing the enchanted netherite chestplate and pants, both of which you started fumbling with. The leather straps were clasped tightly, as to not come off in battle, but you managed to manoeuvre them enough to get them to let go.

As the chestplate was lifted off of him, he hissed and then grunted. You look at the spot his hand flew to on his back, where his shirt had torn to reveal a big gash in his shoulder. It ran from his shoulder blade to his left pec, one of the only places where he was unarmoured.

"Holy shit Tech, why didn't you tell me this was here?!"

"I didn't want to worry you," He chuckled and then hissed again, "I guess that plan failed."

You did not find it funny. You immediately went to get the supplies Phil kept in his house, knowing that Techno didn't keep anything but healing potions in his chests. Phil was eager to help and he handed some bandages and rubbing alcohol to you so you could clean the wound. You also grabbed a spare scrap of leather for him to bite down on.

When you returned, Techno had moved to sit on his bed where he had already removed the greaves and discarded them beside him. You came to his side, putting down the alcohol, rag, and bandage.

"This is probably going to hurt, so I need you to bite down on this," you said, handing him the leather scrap.

"Ok," he said, watching you grab the alcohol and rag from the floor, "Just- just tell me when,"

"Alright," He put the leather in between his teeth, biting lightly, "you ready?"

He nodded, you put the alcohol rag onto the blood-crusted gash. He let out a sharp, low hiss, tightening his jaw on the leather to release some of the pain. You cleaned up quickly to minimise the pain and then wrapped it in the bandage, leaving some so you could clean and replace it later.

"All done, you ok?" You looked at him, one of his eyes was watering.

"Yeah, the pain's much worse when you're not pumped full of adrenaline."

"You better not be hiding any more gashes under all of those clothes,"

"Wanna find out?" He flashed you a smirk, amused by his own confidence.

"I'll take your word for it, but you're going to need to change that shirt, it's covered in blood."

"At least it's not my blood," you shivered a bit at that remark and helped him take his shirt off, careful not to remove the fresh bandages along with it.

For the first time, you saw him without a shirt off. He seemed surprisingly slender for being as strong as he is. There were numerous scars that etched every battle and lesson learned into his skin. Lots of them looked older than you expected and you suddenly realised that he must have been fighting for a long time before coming to the server.

"Like what you see?" he asked, and you rushed to put the shirt down and find an excuse.

"Um, I- I was just looking at your scars, I'll bring this downstairs,"

You rushed away, turning bright red, embarrassed that he had noticed your stares. You absent-mindedly tossed the shirt into the 'wash pile' and then you remembered, in your rush, you had forgotten his greaves. With a huff, you climbed the ladder back to his room.

Techno sat in front of the fireplace, now roaring with renewed vigour from the log he'd tossed in. His pink hair had been undone from the messy braid he had put in that morning. It was almost dyed red and black by the blood and soot in it. He was playing with it, picking out debris and running his fingers through the more knotted bits.

“Tech?”

“Hmm?” he looked up at you, still fiddling with the hair in his hands.

You sat down next to him and he relaxed into a cross-legged position, with one knee tucked under his chin. His free hand is right next to yours and he doesn’t look at you. His face is red, probably from the fire.

“You looked like you were in a trance? Are you ok?”

Silence filled the room again,"

“You don’t have to tell me but just know I’m here if you need to talk. Obviously, I haven’t tattled about anything yet or Tommy and the Butchers would be knocking your door down by now.”

“The voices are quieter than normal. I can hear myself think.”

You try to be encouraging “So? What are you thinking about?”

He looks you in the eyes, they’re deep, his pupils adjusting makes you feel like he’s looking into your soul.

“Um, I’m not sure you’d want to know.”

You frown and protest since you’re now more curious than ever but still a bit freaked out. "C'mon now you've got me curious,"

Techno looked away, solemnly gazing at the fire “I meant what I said about you being a trusted friend. I don't get many of those so, thanks. As for why this is coming up now, well, I guess I’m lonely.”

You hesitated, “Me too, Tech. You're kind of the only one I trust, and I guess Phil, too, but I'd trust you with my life.”

He blushes, looks away, and tucks a strand of hair behind his ear before turning back to you and putting his hand on yours.

You immediately flush and you see a grin seep onto his face.

"I'm not really talking about friends anymore. I want... someone..." he almost whispers

"You mean?" he nods, "I guess I've never had anyone before. I think it'd be nice to see what it'd be like."

“I think we can kill two birds with one stone here, don’t you?”

Now you're both bright red, nervous, schoolkids who gingerly lean into each other's faces, gaze fixed on the other's lips. Your hearts beat hard while your brains rush to make sure you feel insecure, the voices in Techno's mind screaming excitedly.

“You good up there Techno? Your light is still on, it's far past midnight, mate!” Phil shouts from the bottom of the ladder.

“I’m fine, just," He pulls away from you, "reading. Goodnight Phil,”

Techno's ears perk up to listen to the receding footsteps. You’re both standing now, he's standing over the trapdoor, making sure Phil had gone. Once he was sure, he comes over and kisses you hard.

“Tech-"

“Is this ok? I’m not doing anything wrong am I?”

You think He’s clearly never done this before, as you respond "Yeah, I like it..." you continue, stumbling towards his bed where you’re initially just kissing like two teenagers as if it were your first time, desperate, but awkward.

Your hand was pressing against his chest as you laid next to him, tasting each other's spit, learning the ropes since neither of you had ever done this before.

The light from the fire made your shadows dance across the wall, arms moving to hold each other closer, legs wrapping around Techno's, bodies shifting so he's on top of you. Only the roar and crackle of the fire and the occasional grunt or gasp from you or Techno could be heard.

--- Smut begins here ---

As you both part to take a breath, he pulls your shirt over his head. When he leans into the crook of your neck, you notice the tent in his pants pressing against your inner thigh. In between your own legs, there was a pool of slick forming.

You moan, loud, fully knowing that would send Techno wild. He pushes further towards you and holds your arms above your head so he could press his mouth against your neck, leaving red, hot, sticky marks leading from your collarbone to your abdomen.

You're both panting as he lets go of your arms and you wrap them around his neck, pulling his head in for a long, deep kiss. His hot breath warms your cheeks as he repositions himself.

"Hey, is this still ok?" He asks between breaths.

"Abso-fucking-lutely,"

He fully loses himself, taking his hand from your cheek and moving it to your pants, never losing eye contact. You nod and he pushes his hand into the spot between your legs which was now drenched in slick. He found his way to your hole and pushed his index finger into it, creating a sensation you'd never felt before.

Instinctually, you gasp and then moan, harder than before. You rock your hips to his rhythm while he continues to press bruises into your torso. Eventually, he brings his face back to yours and kisses you. You let out another moan into his mouth. He grunts and then chuckles, kissing your cheek before pulling his finger out and then going back in with two.

Now, you're whining, pulling on his long, pink hair. You notice everything in those moments, his rhythmic breaths into your neck and pumping of his finger in and out of your sex, his other hand holding your waist, pushing upwards to caress you, his soft hair in your hand.

"Is it my turn now?" He gruffs.

You hum in affirmation as he pulls away and you kick off your pants as he undoes his own. You immediately notice his size. Compared to his fingers, which were pretty long and thick, to begin with, due to his big hands, his member was a giant. His hand that had previously been half inside of you was now working his dick, its head coated in pre-cum.

While you had seen other penises before, mostly in study, you had never seen one up close, and you'd only seen ones on humans. The hybrid piglin-shapeshifter was sporting a human-like head and shaft, 9 inches (at least) all the way down to a knot... he had a knot...

He notices you gaping at his dick and grins, leaning into you again. "Wanna help me with this, or... should I help m'self?"

Eager to please, you lightly push him forward so you're both sitting up while your hand inspects the new acquaintance. You look up at Techno for guidance. He nods and pushes your hand down with his own. He guides your hand up and down the shaft until he’s no longer guiding you and you’re doing it all yourself.

He does the same with you. The space between your legs was now, simply put, slippery. He did his best to please you, eventually managing three fingers easily.

The pants and gasps were syncing, the knot in your stomach growing stronger while you danced your mouth on the head of his member. He lets out a particularly loud grunt and removes his fingers from your sex. You suddenly feel empty, and he pushes you over onto your stomach.

He puts himself under you, his dick under your mouth. You lick the ever-present pre-cum off of the head of his dick once again and then begin to bob your head up and down, managing to fit him halfway before choking on him. His groans were now louder than yours, becoming more frequent.

"Ughh- fuck," he moans.

Now he holds your head and gently begins to fuck your mouth. Your bobbing was no longer enough, he wanted more. He thrust his hips into you, managing to get a third of the way into you and then it turns into deepthroating after every thrust.

You gag, unable to take him all the way, and so he decides enough is enough and you both rush to get him inside of you. He gets up, moving to position himself above you. You continue to stay in the position he left you in, on your hands and knees.

"Turn around," Techno says.

And so you do, you lay on your back, full of anticipation and covered in juices. He puts his hand on your stomach, leaning in to kiss you lightly, pressing more red marks into your sides, slowly turning you so you face the wall.

He pulls away and holds your leg away from the other, practically putting you into the splits.

"Techno..." You whisper.

"Hmm?"

"Is this gonna hurt?"

"Dunno, darlin'," He leans in again, "let me know if it gets too hard, ok? I'll stop if you say so."

You nod and kiss for confirmation, reaching to hold your own leg up to give him full access.

He inserts the head and you can already feel the stretch, slightly painful but you push on, your fingers grasping the sheets to keep yourself grounded. He’s pushing into you slowly, making sure you're not getting in over your head. You hold the sheet tighter, groaning from the stretch.

He pulls out slightly and the pressure releases. You moan hard, making sure Techno knows that you like what you feel. He pushes in again and begins to thrust into you. Techno is getting further and further with every thrust, and you moan between every breath. He's three-fifths of the way in and he's only getting harder.

Techno's hand replaces yours, keeping your leg raised as you move your hand to work yourself along with him. Your heart beats faster and he picks up the pace. He can get all the way to the knot before pulling out and thrusting in again.

"Tech... Fuck, it's so gooood..."

Now he's becoming sparattic and his face goes into your neck, biting softly, barely enough for blood to form. The knot in your stomach tightens and you scream into the pillow as he pushes all the way in, his skin hitting yours as his knot slips into you.

He moans and thrusts lightly into you, coming inside of you. You feel the pressure inside of you release as you come with him. You're being filled with his sperm, eventually spilling out along with your own come onto the sheet.

He continues to work you with his hand, breathing heavily into your neck. Your heartbeats are in sync and his juices continue to spill out of you, soaking everything below you. You try to look him in the eye as he shakes slightly, somehow still coming.

"Tech? You're still..." you gasp. "I know, sorry... it might be a while..." He grunts out.

Techno's ears perk up and he shoves you under the blanket, still stuck inside of you with the knot.

"What-"

He puts a hand over your mouth as you quiver underneath him, overstimulated by the pressure and his hand which still rested in between your thighs. What the hell is he doing?! The non-stop cum is weird enough, what-

Soon enough, your questions were answered when you heard the footsteps downstairs.

“Do you have my hat?” Phil's voice yells from the base of the ladder.

“Can't you-" he breathes, "you get it in the morning?”

“No, I'm going out super early tomorrow to scout out and make sure we haven’t been followed back.”

“Uh," fuck "it’s on the chair next to my desk up here? I’m in bed…”

Phil comes up the ladder and opens the hatch, eventually finding his hat while techno covers your mouth and lays belly to belly with you, he’s still dribbling a bit, so are you. You’re whimpering slightly.

Phil stops at the trapdoor. “Did you mean to leave the fire on mate?”

“Uh, yeah I was gonna let it burn… I was cold”

“Where’s your friend, loverboy?”

You feel Techno blush above you, his warmth suddenly radiating out from him.

“Um. They went to trade with some piglins since we’re almost out of spectral arrows.”

“Alright let me know when they get back, I just want to make sure they’re ok. Ever since you found them in the snow you’ve been doing better, it seems. Almost like you two are a... thing?”

The question lingered momentarily and you could almost hear Phil's eyebrow raise before Techno answered.

“Hmm, thank you, Phil. Close the trapdoor when you leave, I don’t want the warmth to leave.”

“Alright.”

Finally, the footsteps were gone. He pulls the blanket off of them and he takes his hand off of your mouth. You gasp for dramatic effect, laughing quietly to yourselves at the close call.

"Can I tell you something?" Techno whispers into your ear.

"Yes, you're literally deep inside of me, I'm guaranteed to be interested in what you have to say,"

"I love you"

"I love you, too..."

[baixueagain]

The Gendo & Rei Question, Part III

For the Intro and Part I, go here.

For Part II, go here.

Part III: The Gaze of the Prodigal Son

              Both Rei I and Rei III are “alive” for only a short period, and it is Rei II—the clone active from roughly 2014 through most of 2015—that we as the audience get to know the best. This is also the clone that has the most developed and complex relationship with Gendo, and we learn most of what we know about how Gendo views Rei as a whole from his behaviour with Rei II.

              Rei II and Gendo’s relationship during 2014-15—especially how they feel about it for themselves—is nevertheless one of the more difficult relationships to understand, since they’re two of the most mysterious characters in Evangelion. We rarely get glimpses into Rei’s point of view, and Gendo only truly speaks about his own emotional and psychological state in the final moments of his life during EoE. Even then, he only speaks of his feelings about Yui and Shinji, not Rei. In fact, he virtually never speaks to others about Rei unless he is talking about her involvement with piloting or the HIP. We only get a few glimpses of their direct interactions, and while these are highly charged with multiple layers of innuendo, those same layers of innuendo make the situation all the more opaque.

              One of the best perspectives we have on Gendo and Rei’s relationship, I argue, comes from Shinji. Granted, he’s the main character and most of the story of Evangelion is told from his point of view, but his perception of Gendo and Rei is just as valuable for another reason: he’s an outsider. NERV is by its very nature a place of secrecy and high strangeness, and it stands to reason that most of the people working there have long since become desensitized to their Commander’s odd personality quirks and the strange, solemn girl serving as his first pilot. Even Misato, who has only just recently started working in Tokyo-3 proper, has been in NERV/Gehirn’s general orbit since her childhood and thus seems fairly used to Gendo Ikari’s personality and the odd way things are done under his supervision. But now we have Shinji in the picture, who’s had minimal contact with his father and who has spent most of his life in the “normal” world, sequestered from the truth of the family business. His perspective is that of the everyman, and he is thus primed to see the unusual parts of NERV that other characters take for granted. Moreover, unlike virtually everyone else at NERV (except for Ritsuko, whose perspective I will be addressing in the future), he is uniquely invested in both Gendo and Rei as people: Gendo being his estranged father, and Rei being his co-pilot and thus someone with whom he feels a sense of camaraderie (even if he barely knows her).

              Shinji arrives at NERV shortly after Rei has a serious accident—one that he does not yet know about. His first-ever interaction with Rei happens in tandem with his first interaction with Gendo in years, and this consists of Gendo dangling a wounded, crying girl over Shinji’s head to manipulate him into piloting Unit-01. It is a brutal, cruel tactic, and Shinji seems to recognize this for exactly what it is. He has already accused Gendo of just using him (something to which Gendo openly admits); from his perspective, it at first seems that his father cares just as little for the poor young woman on the gurney who can barely stand, much less pilot.

              This viewpoint is only challenged when, unknown to Gendo, Shinji spots the burn scars covering his father’s palms in Episode 5. His reaction to being told the truth—that Gendo freed the wounded Rei from her overheated entry plug bare-handed (a scene I will discuss in later essays)—clearly stuns him after seeing the cold, calculating way Gendo used her condition to manipulate him earlier. “Father did that?” he blurts out. The concept clearly seems unbelievable to him, defying everything he thinks he knows of Gendo being a heartless, cold, selfish man.

              Interestingly enough, as Ritsuko describes Gendo’s heroic deed to Shinji, the “camera” momentarily moves outside the limits of Shinji’s perspective and shows us what Gendo is doing at that very moment. He is bare-handed (a rarity for him during the A-plot) and for once he has an open, receptive expression on his face as he examines the Angel’s core in obvious wonder and fascination. His lips almost form an excited little smile and the harsh lines of his face are softened. His naked hands touch the core gently, practically caressing it with just his bare fingertips. Considering Evangelion’s repeated use of hand- and touch-related symbolism, it is likely meant to reflect something of his inner emotional world. This is the first time during the A-plot (that is, the plot following Shinji’s perspective and experiences) in which we see Gendo with his emotional guard down. And it comes at the exact moment Shinji learns of his father’s act of self-sacrificial vulnerability for Rei’s sake.

              The idea that his father might allow himself to be hurt for anyone is utterly alien to Shinji, and this in turn is what prompts him to become more curious about Rei. Notably, the next scene is one of immediate contrast: “The burns on his palms are from then,” says Ritsuko, recalling the searing heat of the plug. The shot instantly cuts to a young girl’s body plunging into water. It’s just a small touch, but yet another masterful moment in the way Evangelion uses visual language and careful word choices to create an unspoken discussion on themes. This, we are being told, is going to be an episode about contrasts and subversions. It will also be an episode about sex.

              The poolside scene is the first in which Rei is first explicitly treated as a sexual being—at least from others’ points of view. Shinji is teased twice about his interest in Rei, the first time by his friends Toji and Kensuke, both of whom clearly see Rei as a beautiful (if unapproachable and intimidating) girl. The two of them (being high school boys) describe her body in explicitly sexualized terms, much to Shinji’s embarrassment. At the same time, we’re treated to shots of Rei sitting quietly in her bathing suit, oblivious to their chatter. She is small and vulnerable, but her bare skin and curvy form has still been made into something with sexual energy and potential.

              Back at NERV HQ after school, Shinji watches Rei without her knowledge, still clearly curious about her. Notably, up until this point he has never seen any emotional expressions from her (unless you count her agony in Episode 1). She has kept her distance entirely, and he realizes that despite working together for at least a couple weeks now, he knows virtually nothing about her. There are no relationships in which he can observe her behaviour with others…except for Gendo.

              As he secretly watches within his cockpit, Shinji watches his father approach Rei. Rei suddenly begins acting her age in her body; instead of moving stiffly, she skips and hops eagerly down onto the walkway and begins chatting with Gendo, a cheerful smile on her face and her eyes bright and alert.

              What’s even more shocking to Shinji, however, is Gendo: unlike the scene with the angel core, here Shinji can actually witness his father’s change in demeanour for himself. The Gendo that Shinji knows is a stern, unfeeling man whose rare expressions are that of irritation or a cruel smugness. But as Gendo chats with Rei, his eyes are soft, and a happy smile is on his face. His cheeks even look a bit flushed. Just as important is the way they’re both speaking to each other: although we can’t hear them, we can see their body language and their interaction. They are standing face-to-face, gazing into each other’s eyes, each speaking in turn. They are practically interacting like equals.

              Is it little wonder that Shinji’s jaw is on the floor?

              As always, Anno’s masterful direction creates an unmistakable atmosphere laid across what might otherwise look like a pleasant scene. Shinji’s hidden vantage point, the oblivious radio chatter from the control room, the low single chord of background music, and the fact that we can’t hear a word that Gendo and Rei are saying: all these things contribute to the sensation that we, along with Shinji, have just witnessed something intensely private. Something that neither we nor Shinji were meant to see.

              The scene immediately following this is, once again, Shinji being teased for showing an interest in Rei—this time by two attractive older women. Again the pressure to see Rei as a sexual being is mounted, and the additional overtones of a discussion about sex between a teenager and adults is added. This rapid switch back and forth between Shinji learning about the relationship between Gendo and Rei and being repeatedly asked if he’s interested in Rei himself (all the above scenes take place over the course of about ten minutes) creates an uncomfortable dissonance that charges the episode with a confusing, unnerving sexual tension. At the same time, Rei and Gendo are explicitly brought up and compared to one another: both are terribly awkward, we are told, at life in general. 

              And that’s when the climactic scene of the episode drops on us like a N2, bringing all these interweaving themes to an awkward, disgusting, hilarious, and horrifying head. Shinji goes to Rei’s apartment to drop off her new NERV ID card. Nobody answers the door, which he finds unlocked, so he enters. The room is filthy and spartan; the girl who lives here clearly does not care much about her surroundings or her possessions.

              But Shinji is drawn to the room’s one treasure: a pair of broken glasses carefully set on top of Rei’s dresser. We as the audience are let in on a higher degree of discomfort by knowing something Shinji does not: those once belonged to Gendo, who dropped them when he recklessly pried open the plug door to rescue Rei. Gendo is thus made extremely present in the scene to the audience, even if Shinji cannot sense him.

              I should note here the significance of Gendo’s glasses as a part of his personality. I have noted before that they are an additional layer that he puts on himself as a means of separating himself from others. Though he used to wear clear lenses, after those break he switches to tinted ones, making his expressions even harder to read and representing the increasingly rapid withdrawal of his personal investment and motivations from the rest of NERV and SEELE. His glasses frequently reflect the light, making it difficult to see his eyes even when he’s wearing the clear lenses. The direction of his gaze is thus frequently hidden, and with it his thoughts, feelings, and motives.

              And yet the glasses reflect other things on occasion, too, informing the audience of what Gendo is looking at and what he’s concentrating on. Shots of his face thus have a doubling effect of simultaneously hiding and revealing his gaze: we can see glimpses of what he is gazing at, but only by looking directly at his face and into the glasses which reflect his vantage point. His perspective is simultaneously revealed and hidden.

              So as Shinji approaches the broken glasses on Rei’s dresser, his face is reflected in them—something we rarely (perhaps never?) see happen when Gendo is actually wearing them. His gaze on his son is thus simultaneously present and absent, accentuating the deep dichotomies of their relationship.

              That’s when Shinji does something that feels even more shocking (almost taboo) from the viewpoint of the audience, based on our prior knowledge: he puts them on. It is an incredibly childish gesture, reminding us once again that he’s nothing more than a curious fourteen-year-old boy, but at the same moment he—in the audience’s eyes—becomes his father (emphasized by their similar physical appearance).

              And what is the first thing he sees through his father’s eyes after he turns around and looks behind himself?

              It’s Rei, fully naked, staring back at him.

              Yet at the same time, his view of Rei is blurred and cracked, reminding us definitively that these are not his glasses.

              This, the shot suggests, is not his sight to see. This sight of Rei’s nakedness “belongs” to someone else. Already we are being told exactly what Gendo has seen, how much of it, and that he owns this sight—or at least thinks he does.

              The events that follow are on their surface hilarious due to the awkward nature of the situation, but the staging and shots used (for lack of a better word) are a recollection of the scene down in the cage: Shinji has entered in on something that he should not be witnessing, something that is not for him. Rei strides forward to seize the glasses from him, Shinji slips and topples onto her, his tote catches on her dresser drawer and sends bras and panties flying everywhere. He lands on top of her, covered  in her private items, in a slapstick missionary position with a hand on her breast—and in showing us this, the introductory focus in the pan is of her own hand clutching the glasses. Gendo’s presence is again invoked, even in this deeply awkward, intimate, and violating moment. He is the third, invisible character in this deeply sexually charged scene.

              At the same time, this is the moment where we as an audience begin to see what makes Rei tick. She seems to have no reaction to Shinji seeing her nakedness (leading us, of course, to wonder why), but it is the first moment in which she has a direct emotional reaction to Shinji: anger. But instead of hiding herself, she walks towards him and seizes the glasses away. Shinji walking in on her bathing was not a violation in her eyes, but his wearing his father’s glasses is. Once again, we are given the uncanny message that Rei’s body is treated as a commodity—including by Rei herself. This time, however, we are given an alternative source of her identity. She does not derive her sense of self from her embodiedness, but from something more intangible, represented by the one item in her life treated with reverence: the glasses. She is given her sense of identity through Gendo’s gaze, and it is Shinji’s appropriation of this gaze that she finds violating. Even as Shinji lands on top of her, a hand on her chest, her anger is gone because the issue is resolved: she has the glasses back in her possession and Shinji is no longer invading that space (even as he inadvertently invades other spaces).

              Shinji’s next violation provokes an even stronger response. Despite the horrifically awkward event, it has at least broken the ice, and as they travel together to NERV HQ he begins trying to make conversation about their commonality: Eva piloting. This then invokes the silent third party in this entire exchange: Gendo. Rei asks if Shinji has faith in his father’s work, and when he furiously denies it, she turns, looks him square in the eyes, and slaps him hard across the face.

              And this, of course, seems odd (even humorous) until one realizes why she perceives this as such an insult: she is his father’s work. An insult to her person is of no consequence in her eyes, but an insult to Gendo is an insult to something far more intrinsic to her identity and her emotional world. Between these two scenes, we have seen just how wrapped up Rei’s sense of identity is in Gendo, and in further essays I will argue that the reverse is true as well. Gendo cannot conceive of Rei as existing outside of himself, her identity is so deeply wrapped up in his own. If he ever did conceive of her as a separate being, he will have lost this ability by time Instrumentality arrives.

              Yet at the same time, between all these questions of identity and sexual violation, we see toward the end of the episode that there is a layer that is far more simple and human: Rei takes Gendo’s glasses with her into the entry plug when it’s time for her resynchronization, and she hangs them where she can look at them when she feels afraid.

              Because she is, in the end, also a fourteen-year-old who wants someone to make her feel safe.

To be continued in Part IV: Green-Eyed Monsters

Like my meta? Buy me a coffee!

[robininthelabyrinth]

Light on the Door (ao3) (aka WWX in the Nie sect); tumblr: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4

Wei Wuxian woke all at once when someone dropped something onto the floor, but he kept his body relaxed and his eyes closed. It was only when the smashing sound was followed by a very familiar muttering – “Shit, shit, shit, da-ge’s going to kill me!” – that he relaxed.

“How expensive is it that you think he would care?” he asked, opening his eyes and frowning when he found himself somewhere unfamiliar.

Nie Huaisang, who had been standing in the middle of the room and looking at the shards of a (admittedly very expensive looking) broken teapot with some dismay, promptly forgot all about the teapot and dashed over to him. “Shixiong! You’re awake!”

“You say that like it’s a surprise,” Wei Wuxian said, reaching up to rub his head. “Am I – wait, is this Jiang sect grounds? How’d we get to the Lotus Pier, of all places?”

The last he remembered, he and Lan Wangji had remained behind in the cave with the Xuanwu of Slaughter, distracting it while the others went out through the underwater exit, which had closed up when the Xuanwu had thrashed around. After a few days, when inedia would no longer help them and they knew their strength would begin to decrease, they had decided to fight it, and then…

“Is Lan Zhan all right?” he asked, abruptly concerned. “What happened to him? Did he –”

“He’s fine, you big baby,” Nie Huaisang said, throwing himself down on the bed next to him and promptly snuggling in for a hug. He had zero grounds to call anyone else a big baby. “He woke up two days ago and already left for the Cloud Recesses. He didn’t want to worry them any longer, and they need him, what with his brother still being missing.”

Wei Wuxian spared a moment’s thought for Lan Xichen, who was very nice and also a good friend of Nie Mingjue’s in addition to being Lan Wangji’s precious older brother, but reminded himself that there was no point in worrying when it wouldn’t do any good. That settled, he complained, “Oh, that’s rude! He left before making sure I woke up?”

“Oh, you woke up yesterday before he headed out,” Nie Huaisang said breezily. “You were sleep-drunk as anything, but you were awake and saying something about musical masterpieces. Possibly you might have started to say something about kissing, but tragically I was forced to gag you for your own health before Lan Wangji disintegrated from embarrassment.”

Wei Wuxian put his head in his hands. “…and so he left.”

“And so he left,” Nie Huaisang agreed. “Don’t worry, he left you a nice long letter to read when you feel up to it – and when I decide to give it to you.”

“Cruel.”

“Caring! You must think of your health, shixiong.”

“Shixiong this, shixiong that,” Wei Wuxian teased. “Were you worried about me?”

Nie Huaisang glared death at him. “Of course I was! Do you know what you put me and Jiang Cheng through?! We left you in a cave with that thing, we got ambushed by the Wen sect the second we emerged –”

“You did? Are you all right?!”

“Shut up, I’m fine, Jiang Cheng handled it,” Nie Huaisang said, which – fair. Wei Wuxian would have to give Jiang Cheng many relieved thank-you-for-saving-my-little-brother hugs. “We then ran for days to get someone to rescue you –”

It make sense. The Lotus Pier was closer than the Unclean Realm, and Jiang Fengmian had always been a little unreasonable about Wei Wuxian; it was a good bet to make.

Still, even if they’d travelled down from the Nightless City, they hadn’t gone that far, and the Lotus Pier was a long way away.

“Are your feet all right?” he asked.

“No! They are not! They are awful! There was blood! But not as much blood as we found all over you when we broke into the cave to find you lying there unconscious!”

Wei Wuxian resigned himself to spending the next shichen calming down Nie Huaisang from (admittedly somewhat reasonable) hysterics.

-

“So I’m worried about the Jiang sect,” Nie Huaisang said the second they crossed out of the Lotus Pier – by horse, since that required less from his torn-up feet.

Wei Wuxian looked at him sidelong. “And this wasn’t something you could mention while we were there? To them?”

“I’m not so stupid as to start a fight with our allies by implying that they can’t handle themselves,” Nie Huaisang said. “Even if…”

“Even if you don’t think they can?”

Nie Huaisang sighed. “It’s not that!” he protested. “They’re very capable. Extraordinarily capable, even. But Sect Leader Jiang doesn’t take things seriously enough – the way he tried to scold Jiang Cheng for lecturing you..!”

Wei Wuxian winced. He’d managed to head that off at the pass, luckily, but Jiang Cheng’s face had gotten that mulish expression of mixed envy and hurt that he hated to see, and it hadn’t cleared up until Nie Huaisang fainted in order to escape the awkward conversation. It was a trick he pulled often, one that worked on adults virtually all the time and also amused Jiang Cheng every single time.

“And he doesn’t take da-ge seriously, either,” Nie Huaisang said, sounding as if that were the worst possible crime imaginable. Wei Wuxian understood his feelings. “Not even after the indoctrination camp…I just don’t know if he’ll take the steps he needs to in time.”

“You’re right,” Wei Wuxian said regretfully. “Uncle Jiang won’t want to think about it, so he won’t, but that won’t stop the war from coming…Wait, hold up. You think the Wen sect would come here? Why?”

“I mean, it’s the logical next step to quash another one of the Great Sects,” Nie Huaisang said. “Also, remember that time I fainted from the heat and they took me inside the guardroom? I looked at some of their papers; they were definitely planning on a siege.”

“But why here?” Wei Wuxian asked, deciding to reserve comments on Nie Huaisang’s unexpected foray into espionage to a time when he could appropriately lose his mind over it, preferably with Nie Mingjue in the vicinity to add to the effect. “Why the Lotus Pier? Jiang Cheng wasn’t involved with sticking it to Wen Chao; that was Lan Zhan and Jin Zixuan, and then after that it was mostly me. No Jiang sect at all!”

“He helped later,” Nie Huaisang pointed out. “Anyway, where else would they go? They attacked the Cloud Recesses once already, Lanling Jin is so slimy and double-dealing that they might as well count as a Wen ally, and if you had to pick between attacking the Lotus Pier or the Unclean Realm, between wishy-washy old Sect Leader Jiang or da-ge, who’s been preparing for war since before you joined us, which would you pick?”

“Well, shit,” Wei Wuxian said, because Nie Huaisang wasn’t wrong at all. Nor was he wrong to keep this from Jiang Fengmian, who would probably just pat them on the head indulgently before dismissing them. “What’s the plan, then?”

“Shopping,” Nie Huaisang declared.

Wei Wuxian knew his little brother too well. He started grinning. “Just a couple of young masters going on a shopping trip? With a nice, small retinue?”

“We could hardly be expected to travel with anything less,” Nie Huaisang agreed, grinning back. “Especially with there being both of us, heir and spare! It would be disgraceful to send us out with anything less than at least a squad of Nie culivators. We could stay in Yunping, maybe? That’s not far.”

“Yunping? There’s nothing in Yunping.”

“Not recently, no,” Nie Huaisang said, and shrugged when Wei Wuxian shot him an inquisitive glance. “Personnel issue, someone da-ge met recently…not a big deal. I’m just curious about him, that’s all. I’ll tell you about it on the way.”

“I love how you just decide these things and then pretend that I have some input into how things are going to go before doing what you want anyway,” Wei Wuxian remarked. “I take it that you’ve contacted da-ge already, then?”

“Of course! Sent him a letter first thing once we arrived at the Lotus Pier. Are we going?”

“Yes, fine,” Wei Wuxian said, rolling his eyes. “We’re going, we’re going.”

-

“So, I think we can all agree that that went badly,” Nie Huaisang said. “Can we all agree on that?”

“Shut up,” Jiang Cheng said. His impression of being above it all was somewhat ruined by the tears still streaming down his face and the way he wouldn’t stop hugging them both intermittently.

“Listen, it could have gone worse,” Wei Wuxian said placatingly. “Right? Could have gone much, much worse. At least Uncle Jiang and Madame Yu made it out, and they’ll go crazy trying to find us.”

“Yeah,” Jiang Cheng said, and sniffed, rubbing his nose. “Yeah. That’s true. Thanks.”

Even with the best river-watching intentions in the world, the attack had come so quickly that they’d only shown up midway through the assault on the Lotus Pier, just in time to find Jiang Cheng tied up in Zidian and floating downriver, a sure sign that Madame Yu had given up all hope of maintaining a defense, and naturally they’d grabbed him and rushed in to help her.

A single moment of surprise had been all she’d needed to finish Wen Zhuliu.

Unfortunately, even two full squadrons of Nie sect cultivators – Nie Mingjue hadn’t stinted – couldn’t change the end result, not against the massed forces the Wen sect had brought with them, not even if they sold their lives into the bargain. It was only enough to hold them off for a little while. 

At Wei Wuxian’s order, they had gone back in again and again, getting as many Jiang sect disciples out as they could. It’d been a good plan.

Getting captured hadn’t been part of the plan.

Getting thrown into the Burial Mounds was definitely not part of the plan.

Fucking Wen Chao. Just because his smarmy stupid core-melting servant got killed and he didn’t want to risk them returning as ghosts…

“Somehow, the possibility of it being worse doesn’t actually make me feel better,” Nie Huaisang said, scowling. He had the weakest core out of all three of them, so they’d given him the one blanket they’d managed to smuggle along with them – though technically, that had been Wen Ning who’d done the smuggling, actually, a Wen disciple that Wei Wuxian had befriended in the archery contest. 

He’d apparently remained very sympathetic despite the war.

It would’ve been pretty funny, if anyone had been in the mood to laugh: Wen Ning had arrived to the Lotus Pier late in a panic, nominally to provide medical services, although Wen Chao had implied in a snarl that it was actually to claim credit for helping. He had stuttered his way through excuses and apologies, offered to go start work right away, and then promptly beelined straight for the room where they’d been trapped, sneaking them a qiankun pouch with a few supplies in hopes that they could use it when they escaped.

He hadn’t known that they were bound for the Burial Mounds at that time, of course.

Maybe he’d have included some weapons they could use to fly out of here if he had.

Wei Wuxian had whispered to him “Find a way to tell Sect Leader Nie,” as they’d been dragged away after hearing Wen Chao declare that he was going to dispose of them where they’d never escape, and he could only hope that between that avenue and the Jiang that they would be found soon.

Ideally very soon.

They were running out of protective talismans, and night was approaching.

“Still could be worse,” Wei Wuxian said, thinking to himself that if Wen Zhuliu hadn’t been garroted by Zidian they might have found their way here without even their golden cores. Definitely worse. “Okay. So. I have – an idea.”

“Oh no,” Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang chorused.

“…you two are so supportive.”

“It’s going to be a dumb idea,” Nie Huaisang said. “We can tell. Your tone of voice tells us.”

“He’s not wrong,” Jiang Cheng said. “It’s going to be dumb and self-sacrificing.”

“Dumb, self-sacrificing and with a less than fifty percent chance of –”

“Must you throw all my past failures in my face?” Wei Wuxian said mournfully.

“Yes,” they both said.

“…fine. I’m still going to do it.”

“We never doubted that for a moment,” Nie Huaisang said. “Now tell us what heart failure we’re going to be dying of today.”

“Well…” Wei Wuxian said.

-

“I think I’m hallucinating,” Wei Wuxian announced. “It may be the resentful energy going to my head.”

“Nooooo,” Jiang Cheng said. “You think?”

“Could be the reduced rations and extended inedia,” Nie Huaisang said, looking very tragic. “Or maybe these sad excuses for potatoes we’ve been picking.”

“I am never eating wild-grown potatoes ever again in my life,” Wei Wuxian agreed fervently. “But also, no, seriously, I think I’m hallucinating, which we should write down as a possible side-effect of demonic cultivation.”

Jiang Cheng groaned from where he was lying on his back and staring up into the ever-clouded sky above the Burial Mounds. He’d gotten tired of the writing-things-down portion of the experimentation process early on, especially when they’d had to carefully unbind the one book Wen Ning had (rather inexplicably, but helpfully) shoved into the bag for them in order to get enough paper to do it after they’d run out of space on Nie Huaisang’s fans.

“We have to keep notes!” Wei Wuxian insisted.

“Fine, fine,” Nie Huaisang said. “What are you hallucinating?”

“Suibian,” Wei Wuxian said. “Flying right at me. From the northwest, if that’s relevant.”

“It is extremely relevant, actually,” Jiang Cheng said, sitting up. “Because it’s not a hallucination if I see it, too.”

Jiang Cheng was their control group, insofar as they could have a control when they were all stuck here being slowly consumed by the Burial Mounds. He and Wei Wuxian were about evenly matched in cultivation strength, so it only made sense for one of them to try demonic cultivation and the other not, and then Nie Huaisang had also started doing it, over Wei Wuxian’s protests, when they’d realized that they needed two people for some of the arrays Wei Wuxian invented.

So if he was seeing things as well, that either meant that the Burial Mounds were affecting them faster than expected, or else –

“Wait, you can see Suibian too?” Wei Wuxian jumped up to his feet. “Suibian! Suibian! Over here!”

“Wait,” Nie Huaisang said. “We don’t know how Suibian will react to demonic cultivation –”

Oblong meat boy! Suibian shouted in Wei Wuxian’s brain across their bond, familiar and perfect as always, descending like a whistling arrow. You left me alone! With evil people!

Wei Wuxian leapt up as high as he could and wrapped his arms around his saber. “I’m so glad to see you, you jackass of a saber!”

Apology accepted.

“Is he talking to his saber?” Jiang Cheng murmured to Nie Huaisang, who nodded. “I know he told us about the whole Nie sect cultivation thing - which I understand I shouldn’t know about, but whatever - but I’ve got to say, it’s kind of weird to see it happening out loud.”

“You think that’s weird? You should see my brother and Baxia.”

“How did you get out?” Wei Wuxian asked, ignoring them both.

Baxia tore open the wall where we were being kept, Suibian said, which probably meant that the war was going well and also that Nie Mingjue was on the warpath and very likely that Wen Ning had not managed to deliver the intended message, which would explain the delay in anyone finding them. Baxia’s master gave me energy and told me to go find you, while he followed behind.

“Da-ge’s coming!” Wei Wuxian shouted, and Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang dropped their supercilious commentator façade in order to cheer.

Hey, jerkface master. Why do you feel funny?

“…uh, about that…”

[listentothelittlebird]

I was looking through some drafts and I found this - I think it’s my first attempt at writing Burning Iceberg. Here, Damian tagged along with Jason when he went off for training!

Word Count: 2942 words 

enjoy!

It’s Talia who sends him away.

“Training,” she says, but there is something in the way that she moves, the way that the base is silent and waiting with bated breath right up until they leave. 

Jason leaves alone. Talia watches him go, her posture too unnaturally relaxed for anything not to be amiss. 

He gets one day away from the base before he realises he has a tail.

“Damian?” 

The young boy scuffles out of the shadows with a haughty sniff. “Took you long enough to notice me, Todd,” he huffs. Given the boy’s night clothing - the one’s he wore to sleep - Jason guessed that he had just arrived.

“Why’re you here?” Jason asks, curious. Sure, he had talked to the kid, had trained with the kid, but why was he here?

Damian glanced at Jason, then glanced away. “You were going alone,” he declared stiffly, “I would think that you would prefer company.”

“Mother agreed, and sent me after you,” Damian added, not at all convincing. Talia would never allow Damian out of her sights, especially with the tension in the air back at the base. Something was definitely up, but Jason let it slide and gestured for Damian to come closer. “You hungry, kid? I’ve got enough food for both of us until the next village.”

He knows that Talia might come after him. There’s no way he would let Damian disappear, just like that. For the moment, however, Jason could care less.

He had never asked for a big brother, and he had never asked for a little brother, but he was definitely willing to risk his life for the eight-year-old beside him. 

-

“Where are we going?” Damian asks, quietly. They’re stowed away on a cargo ship headed for the South Pole.

“I want to find a bender,” Jason replies, “The North pole is more connected to the world, and there’s more people to worry about. I’d think that a bender would hide in the South, where there’s less people.”

Damian scrunched up his nose. “Your skills are not adequate to face a bender, Todd.”

Jason pauses, then snorts, “I’m not gonna fight the bender, D. I just want to… talk to them.”

Damian eyes him with a skeptical look, but otherwise says nothing.

-

They’re riding through a brutal storm when Damian loses his grip and tumbles towards the railing.

Jason follows, one hand gripping tightly onto the metal rail and the other holding onto Damian as he flailed. For once, the kid looked genuinely terrified.

A wave crashes into them, and pulls them over. 

-

Jason is surprised to wake up. He tried to gauge his surroundings, but nothing really added up. He was under a fur blanket, a fire crackling near him. Someone was shifting beside him.

“You’re awake,” the voice murmurs, “I thought you’d sleep longer, but it seems not.”

Jason, carefully pulled himself up, narrowing his eyes as he gazed around the igloo. It was sparse, but large enough to fit him, the new man, and-

“Dami,” Jason breathed, headless of the man’s presence as he jerked out of the furs and toward

 his brother’s still form. He pressed two fingers to the boy’s neck, and his heart only calmed when he could feel the steady thrumming for a full minute.

“You’re welcome,” came the dry remark. Right. Jason turned back to the man, assessing him silently. He wore a blue parka, and was currently wearing the hood low over his face. 

“The two of you washed ashore last night,” the man explained, without prompting, “Your friend was barely breathing, but he made it through. You were surprisingly fine once the threat of frostbite was removed.”

Jason glanced again at Damian. 

“Thank you,” Jason stated, before his voice hardened, “But can we trust you?”

The man sighed. “Figures that two kids running around in the Antarctic wouldn’t trust a stranger,” he mused to himself. His amused smile was the only thing that Jason could see, the fire and the shadows obscuring the rest. 

“We are a long distance from the nearest village, but I can take you there. I can send the two of you on your way the moment that your friend feels better.”

-

“You know that you’re safe here, right?” Jason stated quietly. Anuk had left them in the igloo and went hunting by himself. He claimed that he worked better alone.

Damian looked up from where he was curled up in a corner of the igloo, his back pressed tightly against the icy wall. He wrinkled his nose, but there was still apprehension in his eyes. Jason sighed.

“Look, if this guy meant bad, he’d have done something already,” Jason reasoned, spreading his hands along the icy ground. He was glad that his resistance to low temperatures had survived the pit, even if his bending had not.

“Your trust will get you killed,” Damian murmured. Jason winced, “Yeah, well, it kinda already did. But that’s besides the point,” Jason rushed to add, “Just- trust is dangerous, sure, but can you really live your life without trusting anyone?”

Damian was silent. Jason, taking a dive, spoke up, “Do you trust me?”

Damian jerked his head up, staring at him with wide eyes. Then, quietly, “Yes.”

Jason nodded, and pressed, “Talia? Ra’s?”

Damian hesitated. Jason moved on.

“Listen. I know you just wanted to tag along for my training, but we’ve been under the radar for at least a month.” They had arrived on a full moon, and that night was a full moon, again. 

“Even Talia would have to admit to Ra’s that she thought we were dead somewhere in the Antarctic. Firebenders hate the two poles - they won’t be sending a search party for us, much less coming to find us themselves. You don’t have to go back to them.”

This time, Damian glared. “Where else would I go, Todd?” he spat, and Jason realised that the kid had already thought of this, had already considered this, “Where else am I supposed to go, if I do not return to my home?”

Jason pursed his lips, and despite the green raging inside him…

“Bruce would take you in,” Jason admitted, shoving the green away, “I can’t say the same for myself, not when I’m done with him, but… you. You’re his kid. He’d definitely take you in.”

Jason grinned, “He’d love you. Hell, he already took in the Replacement, what’s one more?”

Damian shifted. “Why won’t he take you in?” he questioned.

Jason stilled. “It’s not-” Jason started and stopped, and shook his head. The Joker was still alive. He had adopted a new kid. He wasn’t needed, hell, he wasn’t wanted. He really had just been a charity case. He breathed, trying to push the green down.

“It’s complicated. I don’t know if I can forgive Bruce, and I don’t know if I can stare at him without wanting to put a knife to his neck.”

That was what scared him the most. That he would lose control. He hated Bruce right now, hated him for what he had done, what he had not done, but his nightmare was his vision going green and fading to a Batman bleeding out from a knife in his grip.

Damian looked confused, so Jason tried to explain. “Bruce is… not a perfect man,” Jason sighed, “But he’s all Gotham has. And the Robins - what he does for them, that’s good. Even if-” Even if it gave him false hope for a rescue that never came. He swallowed that down.

“For all of his faults, he did give me some of the best memories.” Not that he remembered many of them. The pit took that away, too. “I hate him, but I loved him, too.”

-

“You’re ready.”

Jason raised an eyebrow at Anuk. “Ready for?”

“The full moon,” Anuk explained, not really explaining at all. He pointed towards the sky. “Tonight should be a full moon. We’ll set out onto the ocean at midnight, and you can perform the traditional water-bending stances for Tui and La. If nothing else, it is a tradition that I practice, and as my student, I want you to practice it as well.”

Jason sighed, but went along with it. He still had no bending - sometimes he thought that the water would move just so, but most of the time, there was nothing. He diligently learnt all of the water-bending moves, but Anuk was probably lying when he said that he was “ready”. How do you tell if someone knows their stuff if they don’t even bend?

-

The night was quiet. Serene, silent in the way that Gotham never was. The League had been silent, too, but not in this way. There was tension in the air, in League bases, sounds controlled and quenched before they could travel. Here, there were only expanses of snow and ice to echo back each scrunch of their boots.

Anuk bended a gondola made of ice, and Jason hopped on, not willing to show his own hesitation. Anuk waved his arms and the gondola moved out onto the calm Antarctic sea.

“According to my Gramps, we used to have big ceremonies on full moons,” Anuk started conversationally, filling the cold silence with soft murmurs. Jason realised belatedly that they should have brought a lamp, or at least a torchlight, but it seemed like Anuk knew where he was going, even in the dim moonlight.

“I live in the South pole, but my Gramps hailed from the North. He says that the late princess Yue gave her life to keep the moon spirit, Tui, alive. The Northern water-benders would present their bending on full moons to pay homage to Yue and her sacrifice.”

The gondola slowed to a stop, and they were left bobbing softly on near-silent waves. Anuk stretched his arms out and pulled, and a square platform of ice froze before them. Anuk stepped back and looked towards Jason expectantly.

Jason had grown used to the icy tundra, enough so that he did not immediately slip off the icy block when he hopped out of the gondola. He took his place at the centre of the ice block, glanced up at the moon, and started to run through his bending forms.

Nothing happened at first. Jason felt kind of stupid, actually, bending without bending at all. He nearly slipped a few times, but he managed to keep his balance, and powered through the basic forms into the more advanced attacks.

Then, something shifted.

“Jason,” the wind whispered, and Jason stumbled. His foot slipped, and he ended up on all four as the ice block rocked, waves pushing over the sides and washing over his hands and knees. The voice sounded like Bruce.

“I’m so sorry, Jason,” came again, and it really did sound like Bruce. Jason blinked into the moonlit ice and nearly gasped. 

It was a bird’s-eye view of the Batcave. He would know that cavern anywhere. Batman was stooped down beside a glass casing, positioned at the centre of the cave.

The vision zoomed in. The casing had a blood-stained Robin uniform, burned and tattered, way too destroyed to be repairable. Jason realised it was his suit. The one he had died in. 

“I’m sorry I couldn’t save you,” Bruce was saying, and Jason could only watch as Bruce absolutely bawled his eyes out in front of the casing, still wearing his batsuit, only having pulled the cowl down.

Just when the sobs died down, Jason heard, “I left Joker in the helicopter. I knew it was going to crash, but I- I thought he didn’t deserve to live,” Bruce admitted quietly. Jason’s breath hitched.

“He survived. Of course he did. If I keep going after him, he’ll just keep surviving, and… I have to stop, before I can’t. Before I lose myself in a world that took you. I’m sorry,” he choked out, and the tears continued to flow.

The scene changed.

“Why?” Dick’s voice screamed, raw and so full of emotion that it jarred Jason to the bones. “Why did you let him live?”

“We can’t be the dictators of who lives and who dies,” Bruce started, but Dick cut him off. “This is the Joker we’re talking about, B!” Dick yelled, somehow louder than the previous shout, “Joker doesn’t care who lives and who dies! He definitely didn’t care when he-” Dick cut himself off with a sharp exhale.

Bruce waited as Dick took measured breaths. “I just don’t get it,” Dick whispered, “A man like him? B, why did you save him?”

Silence. 

“We fight for justice,” Bruce rumbled, steadfast and sure compared to the crying mess in the last vision. Confident, like he had worked through his thoughts and come to a conclusion. “We can’t just kill people as we see fit. Not even if we hold a personal grudge. Not even if we want revenge for our own.” 

They both glanced towards the casing.

“I still want to kill him,” Dick stated bluntly. Jason thought Bruce would reaffirm his rules, that he would cook up a convincing argument and strike down Dick’s motives.

Instead, Bruce only answered with, “Sit on it for a few days. Don’t make an impulsive decision you’ll regret.”

Dick sighed harshly, and left the viewing range of the vision. Bruce turned back to the casing.

“I never got to apologise to you,” Bruce murmured, “For accusing you of pushing Garzonasa.”

“I was worried for you. Nobody should have to live with the guilt of taking someone’s life. I’m sorry if I came off as distrustful. I should have done more. Been better.”

One last scene. A young kid, black hair and blue eyes, looking up at the casing, fiddling with a new Robin suit that Jason had only seen through grainy newspaper prints.

“You were my hero,” the boy said, and checked his empty surroundings before he continued, “You were… awesome. You had so much energy and spunk, and-” he huffed, a small smile on his face, “-much more fire than me. Which is ironic, to say the least.”

Jason watched as the kid produced a photo from his gauntlet. It was a photo of Jason and Nightwing, on the rooftops, laughing and joking around. 

“I always wanted to be your friend,” he admitted, “I never wanted to replace you. I just knew that Batman needed a partner, and I guess nobody else was gonna do it, so. Here I am.”

The photo slipped back under his cape. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to be like you, but I’m trying. I… I know I shouldn’t miss you, because technically I never knew you, but. I do.”

Timothy Drake looked up at the suit for a long minute, before turning and pressing his domino mask across his eyes. “I’ll do my best to make you proud,” he whispered to the air.

The vision disappeared with the pull of the tide. Jason was suddenly aware of the ice block he was still on, as it tipped against the slightly-larger wave. A combination of water and ice made him slide right off the block’s edge. 

Anuk’s yell was drowned out by the freezing water rushing to meet him. It was the very opposite of being dipped into the Lazarus pit. The water was a dark blue, and he could still see the moonlight piercing through the water’s surface. The light bent above him, and he blinked, because it almost looked like a face. A young woman, with long white hair flowing around her serene smile.

The light pulsed, and suddenly he could feel the water around him, moving and flowing, pulsating with its own energy. He could feel the water turning and churning around Anuk’s gondola as he steered towards him. He spread out his arms and pushed-

-and shot out of the water, landing with a slight stumble back on Anuk’s gondola. The boat rocked slightly, but Jason smoothed his palms downwards and the rippling waves ceased.

 “Tui and La,” Anuk cursed to himself, “You were under there for quite a- oh.”

Jason tilted his head. “Oh?” he prompted, still reeling from how alive he felt. He was surrounded by his element, and he almost wanted to dive back under just to soak in his renewed bending.

Anuk produced an ice mirror, angling it to catch the moonlight. It was hard to make out, but there was definitely a patch of hair that was no longer black, dangling right in front of his eyes.

His eyes were blue, like the colour he was born with.

“Yue’s blessing,” Anuk breathed. “What?” Jason questioned, looking up from where he was scrutinising his new hairstyle. Anuk had his head tilted reverently towards the moon.

“Princess Yue lived because Tui gave her life,” Anuk recounted, “Her hair was a stark white because of this. When Tui’s mortal form was killed, Yue gave back her lifeforce to revive Tui.” Anuk chuckled, “It’s why most people from the poles don’t bother dyeing their hair.”

Jason himself eyed the moon contemplatively. He closed his eyes, and realised with a start that the green was gone. The pit’s effects - the murderous rage, the unnaturally-green eyes, the blockage of his bending - they were gone.

Anuk had taught him a traditional bow used to start and end water-bending fights, a sign of respect for the opponent. Jason bowed towards the moon, and hoped he was doing it right.

“Thank you,” he breathed quietly, “Yue, Tui, whatever you prefer to be called. Thank you.”

The moon shone on the ocean, and he swore he could see Yue’s face once more, smiling.

[iturbide]

AU Masterlist

For ease of reference, all AUs will be linked to their respective tag on the blog; for fics marked as ‘In Progress’ or ‘Complete,’ status will link to AO3 if the work has an entry there; for fics marked as ‘One-Shot,’ status will link to either AO3 or Tumblr; for fics marked as ‘In Development,’ status will link to a Tumblr summary or outline of the complete work; all ‘In Planning’ works will be left unlinked. 

Fire Emblem: Awakening

The Future Built Upon the Past (In Progress) - My Awakening magnum opus; a look at the events of the doomed timeline and how it led to the course of events that eventually sent Lucina back in time to alter the course of fate.

Affectionately Yours (Complete) - Accepting Plegia’s invitation to visit in his sister’s stead, Chrom rapidly comes to realize that everything he thought he knew about the halidom’s neighbor is at best a wild exaggeration thanks to the guidance of Plegia’s sovereign, Robin.

Cursed Fate (Complete) - A Shadow of the Colossus AU; following Robin’s death, Chrom takes his body back to Plegia for burial; when a disembodied whisper confirms that there may be a chance to restore Robin’s life, Chrom goes on a quest through the Grimleal nation to bring together Grima’s remains.

Crown of Shadows (Complete) / The Shrouded Throne (Complete) - A split-path narrative where, to stop the civil war raging in Plegia, Robin comes to Ylisse to beg aid from Exalt Emmeryn.    After getting drafted by accident into the Shepherds, the Plegian and the Ylissean prince become fast friends – and very soon, something more. 

Accursed Divine (In Progress) - Robin is trapped in a curse that transforms her by day into a fell beast.  Once the curse is broken, the ensuing political drama follows Robin and Chrom uniting their countries after Robin’s ascension to the Plegian throne.

Sigh No More (In Progress) - An arranged marriage AU where following a crushing defeat at Plegian hands, Chrom’s father is forced to wed his son to Robin, who due to Validar’s ritual in her early life now bears more than just Grima’s mark as a sign of her fellblood; despite a rocky beginning, the two become friends and even find love in the union that had only ever been part of politics and power.

Beyond Twilight’s Veil (In Planning) - When Risen begin appearing in Ylisse, Chrom ventures into Plegia on Emmeryn’s behalf to try to find a joint solution, meeting and readily befriending Robin along the way.  When things go wrong, leaving Robin half-transformed and Validar dead, the Shepherds are forced to flee Gangrel’s pursuit; two years later, Robin claims the Plegian throne and reaches out to Ylisse in an attempt to rebuild lost friendships.

War Crimes (In Planning) - A collab with anankos; the Exalt of Ylisse becomes a willing host to Naga’s power in a bid to wipe Plegia off the map, but the Fell Dragon’s return puts the war in a deadlock.  Chrom is kidnapped and brought to Plegia in a desperate bid to open diplomatic channels, but when that fails he ends up as as a guest and becomes unlikely friends with Robin, the son of a Plegian tactician (who has more than a few secrets).

Manwearer (In Planning) - After becoming separated from his mother, Robin is raised by the taguel of Panne’s warren.  On hearing about a threat to the Exalt’s life, the warren mobilizes to her aid, and Robin and Panne ally with the Shepherds to uncover the deeper mystery behind the attack. 

Assassin’s Creed: Awakening (In Planning) - An Assassin’s Creed AU; when Emmeryn is kidnapped and slated to become a Grimleal sacrifice, Chrom and the Shepherds rush to save her – only her rescue comes at Plegian hands, instead.  Defying his crusading father, Chrom chooses to stand by Robin and ends up embroiled in a millennia-old conflict between secret forces.

Smoke and Mirrors (In Planning) - A Pokemon crossover AU; Robin and her Zoroark Reflet (who prefers a human guise that passes for her brother) join with Chrom, a Pokemon Ranger branching out into competitive training; and his sister Lissa, an aspiring pokemon medic.   This brings them into conflict with the Grimleal who are hunting for the Legendary Pokemon Giratina – a pokemon that Robin and Reflet have a very curious connection to.

Sibling AU (In Planning) - Grima is Robin’s older brother and unwilling puppet ruler of Plegia; when Emmeryn invites the recently-crowned king to Ylisse for diplomatic discussions, Grima sneaks his younger brother along to show him the world he’s never had a chance to see, and both unexpectedly find new friends in what they long believed were enemy lands.

Cardcaptor Lissa (In Planning) - A Cardcaptor Sakura crossover AU where Lissa accidentally unseals the Book of Naga and releases magical cards into the world; with the help of a tiny dragon named Tiki, she has to recapture them all before Grima reawakens to usher in the end of days. 

Promare AU (In Planning) - A Promare AU; after Chrom thwarts a group of Grimleal dark mages from kidnapping an Ylissean family, his world is turned upside down by a series of shocking revelations, and he chooses to side with Robin to save the Ylissean Grimleal imprisoned by his father’s orders.

As You Are (In Planning) - Robin comes to Ylisse on a diplomatic mission, hoping to warn the Exalt of a potential threat; when an attack leaves the Plegian blind, Chrom confesses his feelings – only to be rebuffed as Robin believes that the feelings are born of guilt, leaving Chrom to grapple with what he fears are unrequited feelings.

Pride and Joy (In Planning) - Raised in Plegia under Mustafa’s care, Robin is drafted into Validar’s assassination attempt on Emmeryn – but decides that the orders should not be fulfilled and defects, saving the Exalt’s life.  In the trials to follow, Robin tries to keep the Ylisseans safe from Gangrel’s forces without exposing her own wavering loyalties.

Prisoner of War (In Planning) - The Exalt’s war has left Plegia in ruins, its citizens scattered and the remnants of the army using guerrilla tactics to oppose the crusade.   When his father calls him to the front, Chrom is captured by the Plegian resistance, and rapidly discovers that everything he thought he knew about Plegia (and the Heart of Grima who took him captive) is wrong.

Speaker for the Dead (In Planning) - Raised under Validar’s cruel abuse, Robin exists as little more than a hollow shell, surviving each day on the battlefield.  When Chrom reaches out to him and offers a glimpse of something better than the threat of death, Robin cautiously accepts and gradually begins to recover from the traumas of Validar’s upbringing.

Design Defect (One-Shot) - A modern AU where Robin is the son of the head of the Grimleal mafia who enters Ylisstol University and meets Chrom, son of Exalt Corp’s CEO and the heir to the family company.  While Robin might have some ulterior motives for getting close to Chrom at first, he quickly gets in over his head.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Kintsugi (In Planning) - A Golden Deer-based golden route, where Claude decides from the moment he reunites with Byleth that they’re going to save as many lives as possible.

Pre-Timeskip Fix-It (In Planning) - A Black Eagles-based fix-it AU where Byleth gets to shut down Edelgard’s alarming rhetoric every time she opens her mouth, and the Imperial princess stumbles her way through the process of becoming a better person.

Spite Project (In Planning) - A canon-divergent AU where the question of “what would have happened if Edelgard had hired Miklan to kill Claude and Dimitri at the start of the year?” leads to Claude and Dimitri saving each other in more ways than one. 

Bad End AU (In Development) - A Crimson Flower AU exploring the logical consequences and fall-out associated with Edelgard’s conquest of Fodlan, her deceptions regarding the Agarthan menace, and her choice to kill Claude at Derdriu.

Proof of Life (One-Shot) - After establishing an uneasy alliance at Gronder, the joint Kingdom and Alliance forces proceed north to free Faerghus from Imperial control.  On the way, Dimitri and Claude are ambushed by an Imperial assassin, leaving Claude seriously injured; on the way to safety, though, Dimitri is shaken by the Alliance leader’s words, and begins to question his purpose and his ultimate goals.

Fire Emblem: Heroes

Hard Reset (In Planning) - A bad-end Heroes AU where Muspell invades Askr and wipes out the Order of Heroes – but before Surtr can kill Kiran, they fire Breidablik, which somehow transports them to another Zenith.  Taken in by the Emblians, Kiran sets about trying to prevent the ruin that befell the world they were first summoned to.

Controlled Chaos (One-Shot) - In the midst of battle against Muspell, Kiran is taken prisoner by Laegjarn and whisked away from the field; when the leaders of the Order elect to wait, the Heroes take matters into their own hands -- led by the last Hero anyone would have expected.

To The Last (One-Shot) - Though peace has finally established between Askr and Embla, Kiran is unexpectedly struck down by an old illness from their life before they were summoned; the Heroes band together in hopes of finding a cure...but in the end, it all comes down to a prayer.

Promare

Life Goes On (In Planning) - My Promare magnum opus and a direct sequel to Send the Scourge, Send the Swarm exploring the Parnassus aftermath, the Promeopolis Burnish and their recovery and reintroduction to society, and the gradual evolution of the city through the combined influence of the wider Federation and the growing Burnish activism movement. 

The Enemy of My Enemy (In Planning) - A canon-divergent AU where Lio and the Mad Burnish managed to save those captured by Freeze Force before they were taken to the Lake Friege detention center; after awkwardly helping the Mad Burnish slip through Kray’s trap, Galo inadvertently becomes entangled with the affairs of the terrorist organization.

Pokemon

Project: Elements (In Planning) - My Pokemon magnum opus following a scientist in Team Rocket who discovers that her genetic theory has been put into practice without her knowledge or consent; taking charge of the project herself, she finds herself warring with the ethics and morality of her work when young lives hang in the balance.

Pokekids (In Planning) - Based on an FYCD prompt meshed with an original story in development; the story revolves around an original region and original characters setting out on their journey, the challenges they meet along the way, and the friends they make in the process.

InuYasha

The Rising Wind (Complete) - An AU fic based on loveyou-x3000′s Wind Prompt, exploring the aftermath of Kagura’s death, her revival in a borrowed human form, her developing bond with Sesshomaru, and their eventual family.

Maelstrom (In Planning) - A canon-divergent AU where Sesshomaru diverts Kagura after she betrays Naraku, preventing her death at his hands; as she becomes ingrained within the group, though, Naraku sees an opportunity to make use of her even when she is not within his direct control.

Ace Attorney

Crime of Passion (In Development) - My Ace Attorney magum opus; Miles Edgeworth is once again accused of murder and taken in by police, but this time Phoenix Wright won’t be able to take his case -- because the victim of the crime is none other than the defense attorney.  It’s up to Maya to defend the prosecutor this time, while Miles is forced to confront the hard truths about his relationship with the missing lawyer.

[the-most-slytherin-hufflepuff]

Chapter 6

I manged to finish chapter 6 😃. I’m so excited about this one. I had so much fun and I hope y’all like it. Inspiration for the fic comes from @heyitssmiller and her fabulous anons. Credit for the characters goes to @lumosinlove 

To say he was nervous was a gross understatement. Leo had spent his whole life behind the tower’s walls, and now he was going to a place full of people. He was going to meet Finn and Logan’s family. 

Leo stopped in his tracks when he saw the stone building. The orphanage didn’t look the way he expected. It was a house, probably a family estate. It didn’t look scary or intimidating, it looked inviting and warm and like what a home was supposed to be. 

It looked like what the tower never was. 

Leo heard Finn take a deep breath. “Celeste is going to have our heads.” 

A nervous laugh bubbled out of Logan. “Yeah, we’re super dead.” 

“Worth it”, Finn said softly, looking at Leo. The boy didn’t seem to notice. 

The blonde had a worried expression on his face. He had heard Logan and Finn talk about Celeste constantly. She sounded like a great person, if not a little scary, but nothing like what Walburga was like. What worried Leo was that she wouldn’t like him. 

He didn’t know why that worried him so much. He’d told the other two as much, they had tried reassuring him. Tried telling him she would like him just fine because, as Logan put it, “what’s not to like”. 

“Well, let’s go.” Finn began walking towards the building. “To our, hopefully painless, deaths”. 

“I can’t tell if you are joking or not”, Leo sounded worried. 

Logan laughed, “they’re joking, trust me.” 

Finn turned around to look at Leo, they had a puzzled look on their face before something clicked in their mind. 

“Don’t worry, Celeste is a sweetheart she won’t hurt us.” 

They opened the door. A small child with long brown hair came running out and jumped on Logan, wrapping her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. 

“Hey Katie.” 

Logan put her down and she looked up at him with a glare. “Logan Tremblay, don’t ever disappear like that again.” 

Finn watched Logan get scolded by a small ten year old Katie with an amused face. After glaring at Logan for a few seconds she turned around to look at Finn, she was mad. 

“Don’t think I forgot about you. Disappear like that again and I’m taking away your Katie privileges.” She turned to look at Logan, “yours too”. 

Leo tried to suppress a laugh as he watched them both apologize profusely. “What are Katie privileges?” 

Logan looked at Leo before explaining, “Basically, if she takes away our Katie privileges, we would have to call her Katherine.”

She turned to look at Leo, the anger in her face changing into curiosity. 

“Hello, who are you?” 

“I’m Leo.” He put his hand out for a handshake. 

“Katherine”, she said, shaking Leo’s hand. 

“Wow Katie, you’re so classy”, Finn said between giggles, “shaking hands and everything.” 

“Shut it Finnegan”. 

Logan laughed at Finn’s pouting face. “Lo, you’re sister is making fun of me”. 

Logan’s shrug made Finn pout more. Leo wanted to kiss it away. 

 He shouldn't feel like that about Finn. They had a boyfriend who, Leo realized, he also wanted to kiss. The realization made him startle slightly. He wasn’t exactly surprised, he had dreamt about having a storybook ending since forever. Someone coming to rescue him from the evil inside the tower had been a fantasy of his since he had started reading. 

In the story it was always some damsel in the tower. It was always a girl getting rescued by a dashing prince. Finn and Logan weren’t a prince, and he wasn’t a damsel, but Leo found that he really didn’t care. They had gotten him out of his own personal hell, that he had lived in for years, and he loved them for that. 

Leo had known Finn and Logan for about three days, and he knew almost nothing about them, but he knew enough to know that what he felt wasn’t just gratitude. They were patient with him when he didn’t understand things, and made him laugh and got him out of his thoughts when they drifted to the more dangerous of his memories and they were so beyond gentle with him. 

They made Leo happy. 

They had taken every idea, thought and opinion Walburga had planted into his mind and destroyed every single one of them, and yes maybe somewhere there was someone that would want to take advantage of him the way she always told him the world would, but she already did that.

 Walburga was every single danger and horror she preached about. People like her were the reason Leo wasn’t allowed to leave the tower. That’s why he had made the deal with Finn in the first place. He had made a choice between two monsters and he didn’t regret it. 

If Leo had chosen to stay, to just give Finn the crown and let them leave without him, he wouldn’t have gotten to know either of them. He wouldn’t have known that there were people out there that could care for him, he wouldn’t have known what kindness and love felt like. 

If given the choice again, he would always choose Finn and Logan. 

“Leo, are you alright”. He met Logan's worried gaze. Leo blinked slowly, shaking the thoughts from his mind before responding. 

“Yeah, I’m ok” he tried to smile, but it looked more like a grimace. 

“Well Katie is already inside and probably announced to the world that we’re here so”, Finn made a motion with their hand, “you may get questioned by an eccentric twenty three year old .” 

Leo laughed, Logan was pleased to hear it sounded real. “What do you mean ‘questioned’.”

“June is very curious. She tends to ask a lot of questions.” 

“Who’s June?”  

“June is Finn’s Katie”, came Logan’s response. “Come on”, he motioned with his hands for Leo and Finn to follow him inside the house. 

The inside was interesting to say the least. There were toys and books thrown all over the floor.  A boy and girl were running around being chased by Katie, there was who Leo guessed was June, painting the portrait of a woman that was sitting in front of her. 

  “Alright so, they”, Finn whispered while pointing at the kids, “are Pascal and Celeste’s children. Marc, Adele and well you already met Katie.” 

“What about them?”

“That’s June“, they pointed at the girl painting, ”and her girlfriend Heather. 

The girls turned at the hushed voices. June’s eyes went wide when she saw Finn. She ran towards them and hugged them tightly. 

“June, I can’t breathe.”

“Shut up, you have no say in this”, she said, hugging them tighter. Leo could have sworn he heard Finn’s back crack. 

“June”, Heather grabbed June's waist, trying to pry her off of Finn, “love, they need air”. 

“June, sweetie, I prefer my partners in one piece”, Logan said between giggles. 

June must have decided that Finn had suffered enough, because she let them go,  punching them in the arm right after. “Finn soon-to-be Tremblay, I will only say this one, you disappear like that again and I am hurting you.”

Logan blushed slightly at the name, Finn just laughed. “Heather please control your girlfriend before she murders me.” 

“Why on earth would I do that Finn.”

“Because you like me and would hate to see me dead?”

Leo felt a slight tug at his hair and looked down. Katie was braiding a small piece of his hair. “Hi”. 

Katie looked up at him, “can I braid your hair?” eyes shining with barely suppressed excitement. 

Leo thought about it. He wasn’t used to anyone other than Walburga touching his hair, but how could he say no to such a cute kid. “Yeah”. 

Katie grabbed his hand and brought him over to where Adele and Marc were seated on cushions with a basket of different colored daisies. When Leo sat down the three of them began braiding the flowers into his hair. It was calming, he liked being able to relax into the feeling of someone doing his hair just because they wanted to. Katie, Adele and Marc didn't have ulterior motives to do this, they didn't know, and even if they did Leo doubted they would want to hurt him like Walburga did.

“Hey”- a girl’s soft voice brought him out of his thoughts- “my name is Adele, this is my brother Marc. What’s your name?”

“Leo. It’s nice meeting you”. 

“Why is your hair so long?” Marc said from besides him. He was making a flower crown. 

“My caretaker has never let me cut it.” He tried to keep his tone light. 

Katie hummed, like never cutting your hair was a completely sane decision. “I wish I didn’t have to cut my hair”, she said before going back to placing flowers on Leo’s hair.

“All done”, Adele said as she placed an orange daisy on Leo’s ear. “Come on, let’s go show Lo and Finn.” She pulled Leo by the arm and dragged him over to where Finn and Logan were sitting with June as she continued to paint Heather. 

Katie reached them first. Logan picked her up and sat her on his lap so she could whisper something to him. “We made Leo’s hair pretty.” Logan smiled softly before looking up and seeing Leo. 

Logan’s thoughts stumbled over each other. Different versions of the words beautiful and adorable and lovely running through his mind in both English and French. Finn felt a couple faint taps on their leg, but they didn’t pay any attention to it. Their  mind couldn't focus on anything that wasn't blonde hair, daisies and soft baby blue eyes.  

“What do you think?” Leo asked, twirling so they could have a good view of the braid. Finn made a soft sound while Logan just sighed, a soft smile on his face. 

“You look-”, a dreamy sigh left his lungs, Logan couldn’t find words to describe the way Leo looked. 

“You look amazing”, Finn had a dopey smile on their face.  

“Thank you.” There was a soft blush on Leo’s cheeks, his eyes shining with amusement and something else Logan couldn't recognize. “I think the crown is a nice touch.” 

Finn couldn’t have agreed more with the last statement. The crown on Leo’s head was beautiful. It was made of yellow and purple daisies, and it fit Leo perfectly. Resting gently on his head like a halo. 

Logan watched Leo crouch down in front of Katie so that she could fix the flowers that had gone out of place with a soft look in his eyes. Both Finn and Logan turned towards each other, brown meeting green, a mutual understanding passing between them. 

Leo was great. He was funny and sarcastic and beautiful. Even though they had met Leo less than three days ago it felt like they had known each other for years. Whatever it was that Finn and Logan felt for Leo was right. 

They realized that what they felt about Leo was exactly how they felt about each other. They loved Leo. They didn’t know how they fell for someone they had just met, didn’t know when or why or even what it was that made them fall in love in the first place, but it didn’t matter. 

Finn and Logan loved Leo and it felt right, and if they had learnt anything through the years it was that things like these didn’t follow order. Love was messy and wild and free and so right. 

Finn and Logan loved Leo, they just hoped Leo could love them back.

[melmac78]

Care taking prompt: Gordon bandaging/stitching up Scott’s wounds?

Story injury maker is based on this green machine. The other item on right is an old icebox, aka refrigerator.

I wish I had a pic of a fully intact one, but the one I saw at the Trade Days yesterday that was restored is too small for the story. They’re fairly uncommon now, and wanted a reference for readers who may have never seen one.

For the record, I remember these being around in places as late as early 1990s. The few around now are also repurposed. Hope you enjoy:

••••••

“This is embarrassing.”

"I know Scott..." said Gordon as he assisted his oldest brother in Thunderbird Two's bay.

Scott shook his head. "No, more than embarrassing - this is ridiculous. I knew smoking could be bad for your health, but..."

Any thoughts were cut off with a sharp hiss when Gordon situated his brother onto a cot in the Sickbay to assess the injury.

The aquanaut scoffed slightly. "Second hand cigarette pack vending machines are even worse," he finished with a smirk as he started cutting away the neoprene around his brother's left calf.

Scott rolled his eyes at the bad joke. Thunderbirds one and two had to go to a rescue at a retro restaurant created by Francois Lemaire.

The restaurant was the peak of sophistication - two stories tall, featuring a variety of antiques from the 1950s to '70s.

A work of art for the high class tastes - including dinner.

Unfortunately for International Rescue - Lemaire didn't pay attention to the fact it was on top of a well known faultline, and Mother Nature showed her displeasure flatening the building with an earthquake.

The brothers were successful in rescuing everyone alive - albeit a few with injuries severe enough to require hospitalization.

Scott had finished helping Madeline, the last person inside, out of a pile of debris when an aftershock hit.

He protected her safely, but a broken cigarette vending machine fell on him.

Fortunately, the machine landed in a way it didn't crush his leg.

Unfortunately for Scott, the machine's glass window broke, slicing a 3 inch long gash in his calf.

After a bit of a struggle with the machine, freeing Scott's ankle from the slats that once stored cartons, Gordon and Madeline helped the eldest Tracy outside.

Madeline left with a couple of paramedics for a checkup.

Gordon and Scott ended up in TB2, thankful for once Francois elected to pay more attention how he nearly lost his wife than pester the Tracys.

Scott shook his head at the memory. "Seriously, how in the he... heck did Lemaire find one of those monstrosities?" he pondered outloud, before hissing l at Gordon's ministrations.

The aquanaut shrugged. "Don't know - but some folks years ago when the machines were made illegal to vend cigarettes bought then turned them into miniature art dispensers. Get a few more dollars selling postcard sized art,” he said, then whistled. "Yep. You're gonna need stitches, but you're in luck, you have the best stitcher in the world.

Scott was more concerned when he saw his brother put the needle in the ampoule for a local anesthetic. *oh no,* he thought, and paled slightly. "That's Virgil... I can wait a few minutes," he said.

"Yeah... I know he's the best, but they still need the jaws to move away that life sized replica of the Beatle’s Yellow Submarine blocking the main road," said Gordon as he tapped out the air bubbles out.

”Seriously Gords… I can wait…” said Scott, swallowing hard as the shot glistened. *Not now, not with Gordon present...* He thought, but he knew the signs. He felt light, had a feeling of dread, compounded with old memories...

To his dismay, his brother didn’t listen. “No you can’t. It’s a deep gash, and Virgil will have both our hides if you pass out from blood loss,” said the blonde bluntly.

He then turned back. "Now lie back Sc...."

The aquanaut froze slightly when he saw Scott staring at the needle, pale as a sheet and start to sway. "Scott..." he said warily, only to see his brother's eyes go blank and he listed to the side.

“Woah!” Gordon immediately caught his brother before he fell off the cot. He put the shot down and assisted his older brother flat onto his back. "Easy there bro," he said gently to the eldest as Scott started to come back around.

"'M fine..." said Scott muzzily.

"Sure, and that cigarette machine hit you with feathers," teased the younger man as he checked his brother's pulse. He sighed in relief to hear the older man snort in disgust, and once satisfied Scott wasn’t going to fall out on him, continued. "Blood or needle?"

"Huh?"

"Which one made you faint?”

“I did not…”

“Scott, seriously, you did: briefly” said Gordon gently. Seeing Scott wince in embarrassment, and pain, The aquanaut continued. “I’m not going to make fun - promise, but I need to know the cause because I'd rather like to know how to help.”

The eldest gave a faint blush. "Needle," he said. "Can give shots no problem, but..."

Gordon gave a half smile. "Getting them isn't such?" he said, and Scott nodded.

“Bad doctor checkup when I was in first grade. Complete accident, but gave me nightmares and a lasting fear. Virgil remembered my blackout back then though…”

"So that's why you'd rather Virgil help when you’re hurt? Didn't want us to know of a phobia?"

The raven haired man nodded reluctantly. "Yeah, don't know what's more embarrassing - getting cut by an antique cancer stick machine or fainting from a shot," said Scott, expecting a tease.

He was thankful he was lying down for what came next.

"Neither," chided Gordon.

“Huh?”

"Seriously there's nothing wrong with accidents or fears - besides a potential medical worry."

A confused Scott started to open his mouth as the younger man continued. "But there will be another one if I don't start stitching this, so stay laying down," Gordon said, pulling out a small stuffed toy and putting it in Scott's hands. "This should help."

Scott took the item in his hand and looked at it. "A sea turtle plushie," he stated perplexed, looking at the item. It was about 3 inches long, two inches wide with a swirly tie-dye printed shell. "Never seen this before.”

“I know, I keep Surfer in my baldric most of the time.”

“Ok… but what is, um ‘Surfer’ for?"

Gordon chuckled. "To keep people distracted, and I see that he worked his charms again," he said. Seeing his brother's confusion, he continued. "Gave you the shot - should numb your leg in a couple of minutes.”

Scott chuckled in relief. It was a distraction all right as he traced a pattern on the toy. “So, where did he come from?”

The aquanaut then paused for thought, growing a bit more somber. "I got it from Penny and Parker shortly after the Chaos Crew put me in the hospital."

Scott tilted his head, curious for more as Gordon checked his brother's leg.

Finding it was numbed - Scott was not reacting, started stitching the wound.

The aquanaut, sensing his brother's persistent look wanting for more, continued. "I never told any of you this - but I have a vague memory of coming to in my 'Bird and something sharp cutting through my broken arm."

“But nothing pierced your uniform,” said Scott, remembering the day his brother was lying unconscious in the bed he was now using. He was thankful though: based on what few photos EOS captured of the rescue, some items came too close to finishing the Chaos Crew’s job.

Scott shook off the memory, and saw the aquanaut nod as he started another stitch. "Yeah, I know that now - it was the actual break, but I think in my semiconscious state, I thought it was a knife stabbing me in the crook," he said. "The memory stuck so badly in my head that during a simple blood test in the hospital I fainted."

“Now hold up... they didn’t say you...”

"Well, I am adult you know: doctor/patient confidentiality. Especially as you are a bad enough smother hen without more fuel,” he said, and seeing Scott’s unimpressed look, continued. “Penny and Parker unfortunately were visiting when that spell occurred.

“I was embarrassed - thought when they came back Parker would tease me and Penny do her polite ignoring it,” the aquanaut continued, starting on the last stitch. “But, to my surprise, they gave me the turtle. Said if I ever was in pain or having issues with a shot, hold it, and know that there were people who loved you no matter your faults. Didn’t have a repeat then or since."

Scott started seeing where this story was going. "So you don't see my phobia as a fault?" he inquired.

"No Scott. You're human, like all of us, just sometimes you need a reminder," he said as he finished tying the last knot and started to bandage the stitches. "Personally, I think as ‘Surfer’ worked for you, as you didn't feel that shot, or flinch once from the stitches, maybe you should consider your own.”

Scott was about to speak when Virgil contacted them, saying he was returning back to the Thunderbird and that John was remote piloting One back to base.

"John better not ding my ‘Bird. That'd be worse than fainting and being cut up by a cigarette machine," said Scott, distracted from the talk about plushies.

Gordon chuckled. "At least Virgil isn't considering taking Thunderbird One and converting it to a miniature art dispensing machine. He talked about buying Lemaire’s… but I think it’s to scrap it into a weird recycled art sculpture after cutting you. Double when he eyed the icebox," he said, then laughed more when Scott rolled his eyes. "Now, lie back and rest. I'll stay here and keep you company so Virgil doesn't be a Smother Rooster."

"Papa bear," corrected Scott.

"OK, papa bear ... but same reason," he said, then grew sober, as he tapped the turtle, which Scott handed back. "And Scott, just remember, two things: 1. I won't tell anyone else about your phobia, and 2. Even if the others find out, we'll always love you - warts and all."

The eldest nodded and let himself relax into the comfort of the bed as Virgil flew them back back to Tracy Island...

When he later on woke up safe and sound in the Island's infirmary, brought there to double check the stitches and ensure no infection, he found his left hand was resting on something soft, and fluffy.

Picking it up, he found it was a tie dyed octopus. Just the right size to put in his baldric... just in case.

"Thanks Gordon," he said, smiling.

[broccoliboix5peepeeman]

hi !!! as a writing request!! could i ask for platonic todokamimina? they’re a chaotic group and i don’t see them nearly as often as i should </3 thank you so much !! :)

Anything for you, friendo!!! <333

Ao3 link

 Green.

 Very green.

 Shoto liked green.

 He leant his elbows against the desk and cupped his cheeks in his hands as he stared across the classroom. Aizawa was wrapping up their final lesson, but Shoto couldn't care less. Instead, he admired the way Midoriya rubbed the back of his head as he frantically scribbled down notes, causing his verdant curls to stick out at odd angles. Shoto wanted to run his hands through them.

 'Pretty.' He murmured to himself.

 'What's pretty?' A head suddenly rested on Shoto's left shoulder. He stilled slightly and turned to find Kaminari's curious face, scanning the room.

 'Besides you, of course!' Another voice added, before another head squished against his right cheek and Shoto seriously considered teaching his classmates about the concept of personal space.

 ‘Ashido. Kaminari. I’d appreciate it if you moved.’ When neither of them seemed to take the hint, he raised his arms and pushed them away with a palm to their cheeks.

 When they shrieked and landed on the floor, Shoto gathered his things and stood up. ‘And if you must know, Midoriya is very pretty. I would’ve thought that much was obvious.’

 ‘Wait wait wait!’ Kaminari exclaimed, grabbing onto Shoto’s leg whilst Ashido scrambled to her feet. ‘You have a crush on Midoriya? Dude!’

 ‘I don’t want to crush Midoriya.’ Shoto raised an eyebrow and shook Kaminari off his leg.

 ‘No, he means you like him!’ Ashido squealed, waving her fists around excitedly, but that just made Shoto even more confused.

 ‘Of course I like Midoriya.’ He frowned slightly. ‘I thought everyone did. He’s incredible.’

 ‘Bro.’ Kaminari smacked his forehead with exasperation, whilst Ashido giggled and moved to pat Shoto on the shoulder.

 ‘Todoroki, sweetie, honey, no.’ She snorted, a wobbly smile on her face. ‘We mean, you like Midoriya in a romantic way.’

 …

 Oh…

 ‘What makes you think that?’ He raised his hand to his chin as he considered her words.

 'You just called him pretty!' Kaminari choked out.

 'And?' Shoto tilted his head to the side. 'It's an objective observation. Anyone with eyes would agree Midoriya is pretty.'

 'Ah-' Kaminari raised a finger to argue, but he faltered with a sigh, clearly defeated. 'You got me there.'

 Shoto closed his eyes and nodded once. It was nice being right.

 ‘Well, how do you feel when Midoriya is around you?’ Ashido asked, trying a different route. ‘When he compliments you.’

 ‘I feel… Fuzzy.’ Shoto frowned, trying to picture his best friend in front of him now.

  ‘Wow! That was amazing, Todoroki-kun!’ A bright smile crossed Midoriya’s face, eyes wide and shining with awe. ‘You really are so cool!’

 ‘I feel… Warm. Not like my quirk, like… On the inside, I feel warm.’ He elaborated. ‘And when he says nice things about me, I feel… Good. I want him to say more nice things.’

 ‘Oh bro.’ Kaminari clasped his hands together and rested his cheek against them. ‘That’s adorable. What makes you think he’s pretty?’

 ‘Everything.’ Shoto answered, a little too quickly. When the two of them looked at him, amused, he quickly cleared his throat. ‘His hair looks really fluffy and I want to touch it to see if it feels as nice as it looks. His freckles are really cute and his eyes are always so kind. He makes me feel comfortable.’

 ‘What about his smokin’ hot body?!’ Kaminari interrupted with a smirk. Ashido elbowed him, but couldn’t hide her own grin.

 ‘I said he’s warm, not hot.’ Shoto pointed out, ignoring their antics. ‘But now that you mention it, his body is incredibly nice to look at... And to touch. When he hugs me, he’s so soft despite all the muscle. And his hands are also very pretty - I want to hold them.’

 He trailed off and was met with silence. When he looked up, he found Kaminari and Ashido looking at him with shocked expressions.

 ‘That’s so adorable, Todoroki!’ Ashido squealed.

 ‘Man, you’ve got it bad, huh?’ Kaminari wiggled his eyebrows. ‘Yeah, you definitely like Midoriya romantically.’

 ‘What?’ Shoto narrowed his eyes. ‘I thought that’s how you were meant to feel about your best friend?’

 ‘Well… Yes.’ Ashido bounced her head side to side in thought. ‘But usually not to that level. Like, do you feel the same way about Iida or Yaomomo?’

 Shoto wrinkled his nose at the thought.

 ‘I like them.’ He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling guilty. ‘But I don’t… When I’m with Midoriya, I feel… Home.’

 ‘Do you want to kiss him?’ Kaminari suddenly asked, completely throwing Shoto off.

  Do I want to kiss him?

 He thought about the question. He thought about Midoriya’s lips, slightly chapped from when he’d sometimes chew on them when he was nervous; the way his mouth would move a mile a minute when muttering about heroes and quirks; the blinding smile that would form when he was happy.

 Kissing him sounds like heaven.

 ‘I… I’m not against the idea.’ He felt a blush dust his cheeks and quickly looked at the floor. ‘Okay, maybe I do like Midoriya romantically, but there’s no way he’d like me back.'

 ‘What makes you say that?’ Ashido quirked an eyebrow, sceptical. 

 ‘Because he could have anyone.’ Shoto had to be careful here. He didn’t want to have to explain why Midoriya was way too good for someone like Shoto, who was broken and scarred. He liked Kaminari and Ashido, but he wasn't quite ready to overshare his past trauma with them.

 That was purely a Midoriya thing.

 He considered his words for a moment. ‘His presence is inspiring. He's like the sun and he cares so much. I'd follow him anywhere. People love him and I'm…'

 He trailed off, unsure of how to finish.

 'Gorgeous?' Ashido offered.

 'No.'

 'Cool - excuse the pun.' Kaminari contributed with a smile.

 'No.'

 'Mysterious?' Ashido exclaimed, confident.

 'Weird.' Shoto finished, lamely.

 The room was silent for a minute, before suddenly,

 'Brooo.' Kaminari looked at him, aghast. 'You're telling me that Midoriya won't want to be with you because you're weird? Midoriya? The same Midoriya who mumbles to himself and makes being weird look incredibly endearing?'

 'Yes.'

 'Oh, honey.' Ashido sighed and patted his shoulder again. 'What my esteemed colleague here is trying to say is… You're both weird, but in different ways. You-' She raised her two index fingers and brought the tips together. '-Complete each other.'

 She batted her eyelids at him and Shoto wondered how he ever got into this conversation in the first place.

 'Right.' He spoke slowly, before grabbing his bag. 'Okay. I'm leaving now.'

 He turned to walk towards the door but was stopped by one pair of arms around his legs and another pair wrapped around his blazer sleeve. The former sent him off balance and he tumbled to the ground, unable to cushion his fall with his ice thanks to Ashido holding his right arm in a vice-like grip.

 'Motherfuck-' His chin smacked the floor, but before he could even process the pain, both of his classmates piled on top of him, muttering a string of apologies that would've been much more appreciated if they weren't simultaneously suffocating him.

 'Wah! Sorry, Todorokiiiii!!!' Ashido exclaimed.

 'Are you okay?!' Kaminari screeched. 'We'll get you together with Midoriya, promise! Will that make you feel better?'

 'Get.' Shoto used every ounce of patience he possessed to keep himself calm. 'The fuck. Off me.'

 Wordlessly, they scrambled off him and he stood, wiping the dust from his uniform. His chin stung and his eyes watered out of reflex, but he maintained his composure. It was nothing Shoto couldn't handle, he'd had worse in the past.

 'Todoroki-'

 'Midoriya doesn't want to be with me.' He interrupted. 'So I'd appreciate it if you dropped the matter.'

 As he made his exit, Shoto didn't notice the yellow sleeping bag poking out from around the teacher's desk. He also didn't notice when the person inside it complained about how he wasn't getting paid enough to listen to this shit.

 😄😐😄

 'What happened to your chin, Todoroki-kun?' Midoriya asked, peering up at Shoto, concern evident in his voice.

 'Tripped over.' He muttered, rubbing the back of his neck and looking off to the side to avoid his friend's blinding gaze.

 He instantly regretted it when his eyes fell on Ashido, grossly kissing the air, whilst Kaminari hugged himself and pouted seductively - whether he succeeded or not was up for debate. Shoto's eyes widened at the sight and he quickly looked back at Midoriya.

  Not today, Satan.

 'It's bruising, Todoroki-kun. Are you sure you're okay?'

 'Erm, yes.' He tried not to blush at the proximity. 'I'm fine, Midoriya-'

 'Stupid Deku!' The loud, obnoxious voice of Bakugou suddenly rang in Shoto's ears. He also noticed how Midoriya seemed to jump three feet into the air at his proclamation. 'Forget about dumb Icyhot! Get the fuck over here now!'

 'C- Coming, Kacchan.' His friend stuttered out, before looking up at Shoto apologetically. 'Sorry about that. I have to go. Promise you're okay?'

 Shoto nodded silently, noticing how Midoriya's smile didn't seem entirely genuine as he made his exit.

  Is he upset?

 Shoto watched him go and allowed himself a moment to consider what it would be like if Midoriya really did like him back. Would he say no to Bakugou in order to spend more time with Shoto? Would they hold hands in the common room? Would Midoriya kiss his chin better?

 He sighed softly at the thought, but was interrupted once more when Kaminari suddenly threw his arm around his shoulder and grinned, as if he hadn't caused Shoto to faceplant the floor not two hours ago.

 'Oh, young love.' He gushed.

 'You've got to use this opportunity!' Ashido punched the air - where had she come from? - and shook him. 'Be the shining knight who saves his love from the dragon!'

 'What the hell are you on about now?' Shoto asked, exhausted.

 'Go rescue your man from Kacchan!' Kaminari scoffed, as if it were obvious.

 'My man?' He raised an eyebrow. 'Midoriya is his own person?'

 'How romantic!' Ashido squealed, linking her arm in his. ‘So noble!’

 Shoto was very confused.

 'No, dude!' Kaminari sounded pained, which Shoto thought was unwarranted. He knew it wasn't a competition, but he also knew for sure that he was definitely in more pain than Kaminari was. 'Midoriya clearly doesn't want to talk to Bakugou, so you should get him to leave him alone. We know how much you love tearing into Kacchan!'

 'Yeah!' Ashido seconded. 'Midoriya can't say no to anyone, so you need to rescue him!'

 'Hm…' Coming to Midoriya's aid was rather tempting, albeit he wished he didn't need to in the first place. 'I don't know what to say though.'

 'We'll help you!'

 Kaminari leant in to whisper in his ear. As he explained his strategy, Shoto nodded along in understanding, and after about 30 seconds, he was ready.

 'Hey, Bakugou!' He called out, causing the blonde to turn and glare at him from across the room. When Midoriya also turned around, Shoto took in his watery eyes and quivering lip, and puffed out his chest, a newfound determination evident on his face.

  Nobody makes Midoriya sad!

 'The fuck do you want, Icyhot?' Bakugou barked.

 Shoto maintained a cool demeanor and recited the first thing Kaminari had told him.

 'You have your entire life to be a piece of shit. Why not take a day off for once?'

 The room went silent, save for Ashido's muffled giggles.

 'HAH?!' Bakugou exclaimed. 'The fuck did you just say to me?'

 'I said I just wanted to tell you…' Kaminari muttered something else in his ear and Shoto nodded. 'You bring everyone so much joy!'

 Even Midoriya tilted his head to the side at that, but he didn't look like he was about to cry anymore, which was progress.

 Bakugou smirked and crossed his arms.

 'That's what I thought you'd said-'

 'I'm sorry, I wasn't finished.' Shoto held a hand out to stop him. 'I was gonna say, you bring everyone so much joy when you leave the room. Maybe you should try it?'

 Bakugou's eye twitched, while Midoriya let out a quiet snigger.

 Shoto felt blessed.

 'Who the fuck do you think you're talking to, you bastard?!'

 Ashido quickly covered his back.

 ‘I'm talking to the human version of period cramps.' Shoto echoed her words. 'That's not something one forgets easily.'

 Midoriya bit his lip to hide a laugh and Shoto allowed himself to become momentarily distracted by the action, the corner of his lip twitching upwards. He didn't even realise Bakugou was storming towards him, until Ashido shoved him away from an explosion.

 He collided with Kaminari, who grasped him by the shoulders and muttered something else, before pushing Shoto away to give him a head start. He raced across the common room and stood behind the sofa. When Bakugou tried to run around it to grab him, Shoto merely sprinted the opposite way, until both of them were stuck, waiting for the other to make a move.

 Of course, Shoto decided this was the perfect opportunity to recite what Kaminari had told him.

 'I love what you've done with your hair, Bakugou. How did you make it come out of your nostrils like that?' He raised an eyebrow and turned to Kaminari. 'But he doesn't have hair coming out of this-'

 'ENOUGH!'

 Bakugou let out a roar as he leapt over the sofa. Shoto quickly dodged his attack and raced towards Midoriya. He grabbed his friend’s hand and pulled him along with him as he escaped the common room and dashed up the stairs, two at a time, a raging Bakugou in tow…

 Until two pairs of hands suddenly grabbed onto the blonde and dragged him back.

 When Shoto turned around to thank his saviours, he found Kaminari and Ashido restraining Bakugou. With a grateful nod, he saluted his friends for their sacrifice and dragged Midoriya towards his room.

 Once the door locked behind them, he panted for breath, not realising he was still holding Midoriya's hand until he felt a soft squeeze.

 'Thank you for that.' His friend spoke softly. 'Kacchan's really mad though. You might wanna go into witness protection after that little stunt.'

 'I can handle him.'

 'I know you can. I was joking.'

 'Hm.' Shoto smiled slightly when Midoriya giggled, but it was quickly followed by an awkward silence, save the rapid beating of his heart and the deep, shaky breaths he took from the previous excursion. He wanted to say something more meaningful, tell him that he'd gladly enrage Bakugou again if it meant he’d leave Midoriya alone.

 'Y- You can let go now, Todoroki-kun.' Shoto startled and finally turned away from the door to regard his friend, who stared right back at him, both nervous and amused.

 Shoto swallowed heavily and thought about what Ashido and Kaminari told him.

 ‘You're both weird, but in different ways. You complete each other.'

 ‘Do you want to kiss him?’

 He took the plunge.

 'What… What if I don't want to let go?' He tried not to look away when Midoriya's eyes widened in response. 'What if… I want to find more excuses to hold your hand?'

 'Oh, Todoroki-kun.' Midoriya smiled sadly at him and Shoto felt his heart begin to shatter. However, before he could unleash hell on Ashido and Kaminari for mentally talking him into this, Midoriya reached forward and took his other hand in his.

 A calloused thumb rubbed circles against his skin. 'You never need an excuse to hold my hands, I promise.'

 When realisation hit Shoto, Midoriya's smile brightened and he suddenly felt himself being enveloped into a tight hug.

 😄😐😄

 The next day, Shoto and Midoriya walked into class fifteen minutes early, hands intertwined and leaning against each other.

 Fourteen minutes later, Kaminari and Ashido stumbled through the door to find some gifts on their desks: some hamburgers and a large bowl of natto, respectively. When they scanned the room for the source of this kindness, they made eye contact with Shoto, who flashed them a thumbs up and smiled.

 He may be a man of few words, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t appreciate his friends helping him.

[survivingthejungle]

everybody wants to rule the world (caliban)

When Sabrina was 8 years old, her life got a little more unusual. Being a half witch raised by her two aunts and cousin (all full-blooded witches)  in a mortuary was not a common experience for most children. But things became different when another cousin, from her mother's side of the family, came to live in the Spellman house. Her mother, Diana, had a brother, William; WIlliam married and had a daughter just two years before Sabrina was born. She was named Genevieve Sawyer, and she and her paternal cousin had been very close to one another their entire lives. When it was heard that William had been shot and that Genevieve's mother was not fit to parent, the girl's cousin and family immediately stepped up to take her in and be her legal guardians. 

Despite Genevieve's unfortunate circumstances, she never lost her bright personality or kindness. She seemed to stick out like a sore thumb in the Spellman house from time to time, but it was a welcome change of pace for everyone who lived there. For the next eight years after she had gone to live with her cousins and aunts, she had grown into a compassionate, driven young lady. Growing with her were several pets she had acquired over the years. Genevieve had a special love for animals and so had adopted many. She had a spotted turtle named Tucker, whom she had rescued from getting run over by a truck one morning. She also had an orange tabby cat named Tex, a green budgie named Pico, and a blue pit bull terrier named Bambi. The latest addition to the family was an albino ball python, whom she was currently in the process of naming. 

"Genevieve. I mean it this time," scolded her aunt Zelda. "No more pets. You have barely enough space for them all, and I won't allow any more of this."

"No more, aunt Zelda. I got it. This guy is the last," she affirmed, gesturing with the snake which was slithering over her shoulders and down her left arm. Her aunt shuddered. 

"How you can allow that thing near you is beyond me."

"She's sweet!" she defended. "She's just curious."

"She stays in your room only. If I see a snake slithering about my house I won't hesitate to kill it."

"She won't go anywhere. Promise."

Once her aunt had finished scolding her and left her room, she turned her attention back to her new friend. "What do we call you, huh?" Genevieve said. She set the snake down on her bed and flipped on her record player against the wall to fill the silence, and an old Fleetwood Mac album started spinning. "Well," she said, "I have to take Bambi and Tex on a walk, so I guess we should put you in your tank, huh?" She moved the young albino to the mostly empty tank and placed the lid over it, promising, "I'll get you some decorations while I'm out." Then she put on a pair of socks, laced up her shoes, and grabbed two harnesses and leashes from the footboard of her bed, heading downstairs to find the only two of her pets that were mammals. "Morning, aunt Hilda," she greeted the small blonde woman.

"Oh, g'morning my love! Are you taking Tex and Bambi on a walk?"

"Yeah, once I find 'em." "Well you'll eat first, won't you?" She pointed to the table. "Some toast for you."

"You're the best," Genevieve said, sitting down to take a bite of it. The toast was covered with peanut butter and sliced bananas; simple, but a favorite of the girl's. She finished eating quickly and was off again in search of her cat and dog, finding them in the family room. Tex was lounging on the couch and Bambi had seemingly been banished by him, staring at the tabby from the ground. "You wanna go on a walk?" she said to them both, her voice increasing by about an octave. Bambi's ears perked up and her eyes widened; Tex hopped down from the couch and over to circle Genevieve's legs. "Hey auntie," she called into the kitchen, "Do you know where Beans went?"

"Yes," her aunt called back, "I believe she went to go see Harvey, Roz, and Theo?"

"Okay. Thank you!" She then strapped both of the harnesses onto Tex and Bambi and put them on their leashes, and then made their way outside to their usual walking route. About halfway through their walk she and her two companions made a detour to go to Harvey's garage, where Genevieve had guessed their band would be practicing and where her cousin had gone to find them. Heading around behind his house, she found the garage door unlocked and entered in to find the four of them seemingly discussing something important.

"'Vieve,"  Sabrina greeted as soon as she saw her cousin. "What's up?"

"I was walking Tex and Bambi," she responded, holding up the two leashes attached to both animals. "What's up with you?"

"Sabrina's trying to take us to Hell," Theo told her. 

Genevieve's eyebrows raised and she went to take a seat on the couch closest to her. "Why?" she asked Sabrina.

"Nick." She said his name sadly; she knew her cousin missed him a lot and felt guiltier every day she left him trapped there. "I think I found a way to get him out."

"But, like… He's still…" Genevieve trailed off, not knowing how to formulate her thoughts exactly. 

"Yes," she responded, knowing what the girl was getting at. "A flesh Acheron. But I might have a solution for that too."

—

Sabrina had brought the five of them through Dorian's portal to Hell with an incantation, where they landed on a cold, dark beach, coughing up the salt water that had gotten into their lungs. "Wait, so… Hell is a beach?" Harvey asked.

"The Shores of Sorrow," Sabrina whispered hauntingly. 

Theo stood up and pointed out at the water. "Guys. Look. What are those?" There were tall wooden structures standing above the waves, and from them came pained groans and wails. Hands were reaching out, desperate to grab whatever would come close to them. 

"They're the souls of the damned," called a deep, unfamiliar voice. The group turned their heads to look for the source, and saw a large sandcastle and someone walking out from behind it. He had blond hair and was wearing a flowing white shirt that he had left unbuttoned. "They drown as the tide rolls in. Over, and over," he said, looking out at them, "For all eternity."

"Bummer," Genevieve whispered to Roz.

"Hi," Sabrina greeted him as the group approached him. "We're looking for Lilith." He didn't respond. "Uh, Madame Satan? S-Queen of Hell?" The boy looked pointedly at her, on the verge of a smirk. "She's in Pandemonium, if you happen to know the way." He turned his head and pointed left. Sharp jaw, Genevieve thought. 

"All blood flows to Pandemonium." Sure enough, there was a large rock through which blood was flowing, that seemed to turn into a path further up the beach. "Follow the blood-red road where it flows, and there you'll find the throne of Hell," he instructed, still pointing. 

"Thanks," Sabrina said. He pushed his hair back from the wind blowing on the beach, smirk still present. What does he know that we don't? her cousin wondered.  "And you are?"

He seemed as if he were about to respond, but decided against it. "Never step off the road," he advised. He looked at their feet then. "It's clever you're wearing dead men's shoes. Though… any demon worth his salt can smell mortal flesh a mile away."

Genevieve's brows furrowed. "Ew." The boy glanced at her and then turned back to his project. 

"Come on," Sabrina said, "Let's go." The four trailed behind her, but Genevieve stayed still for a moment. "Hey! I like your sandcastle," she called to the boy. He looked back at her, intrigued. "Bye!" she waved. He lifted a hand in return, and she was on her way. 

— 

The journey through hell had been… adventurous, to say the least. Between the field of crucified people beating eaten by crows, to the forest with a magical flower and a bloodthirsty tin man, to a horrific mock-high school classroom, Genevieve and the others were exhausted, scared, and ready to go back to earth. After being rescued by Lilith's helper, a man dressed in a bellhop's outfit and being seated at some hellish feast, she and Sabrina began a conversation about getting Nick out of Hell and taking care of Theo's uncle's soul as well. The Infernal Kings weren't recognizing Lilith's newfound authority, so she struck a deal with Sabrina- the throne for her boyfriend and her friend's uncle. Sabrina, of course, agreed, and the process had begun.

— 

"Infernal court, I bid you welcome," Lilith greeted from the throne. The three demonic kings stood before her in wait. "The city of Pandemonium has an honored guest. May I present to the hordes, Sabrina Morningstar, daughter of Lucifer Morningstar." Sabrina walked to stand next to the woman and looked around the throne room. "In his absence, she has come to officially declare me Queen of Hell. Isn't that right, Sabrina?"

"Yes, that's right," she told them. 

"This is treason! Heresy!" the Kings protested. "Lilith is a concubine, not a queen. We do not recognize her. She was Lucifer's whore. The realms are in chaos, and the Earth, the Pit, the Heavens, the Cosmos, they all reject Lilith's claim to the throne."

"And who do you propose would rule?" she shot back. 

That was the million dollar question, it seemed, because the Kings got a nefarious look in their eyes. "All hail Caliban, Prince of Hell. Molded from the clay of the Pit itself, native son of the inferno, born to restore and rule our dark domain!"

"Hello again," said the supposed Prince Caliban, in yet another open top. He maintained the smug look on his face that he was wearing at their last encounter. 

"Uh, hi?" Sabrina said, mildly confused. 

"What is this?" Lilith questioned. "This is salvation," he told her. "Since the Dark Lord's desertion, the Nine Circles of Hell have been breaking down. I, Caliban, will restore stability and do what Lucifer failed to do… conquer the earth. Remake it as our Tenth Circle, and enslave the tribes of mortal and witch."

Before anyone else could get a word in edgewise, Genevieve spoke up. "No? You most certainly will not!" she said. He raised his eyebrows at her. "Dude. You're… you're not even a real person." Her brow furrowed. "Someone gets one good blast with a hairdryer and what happens? You dry up and crack?"

"I'm afraid that's not how it works, darling." He stepped closer. "Though you are clever for that." Yet another smirk. Smug bastard. Closer. And closer. 

She glared at him. "Thanks," she deadpanned. 

"You are pretty, for a mortal," he said to her. "Maybe I'll have mercy on you." He lifted a hand to beside her face and toyed with a strand of hair that had fallen out of her braid.

"Don't touch me." She slapped his hand away, and he stepped back. Sabrina and Lilith had been whispering to each other from the moment that Caliban revealed his plan. But now, she was seemingly comatic; her eyes and Nick's were both glazed over in red and they were both catatonic. But when her senses came back and her eyes returned to normal, she had adopted a newfound confidence. "No, we won't," she said to Lilith. "I am Sabrina Morningstar," she announced to the hordes, "And that throne is mine. By blood, and by birth."

"Here we go again," Harvey muttered. Genevieve chuckled. 

"Yours to give me, you mean," Lilith interjected. 

"No. Mine. To claim." She sat on the throne herself, and her cousin had to admit that she looked rather regal. 

"We do not accept this!" the Kings argued. "The witch lives on Earth. She cannot possibly rule Hell."

"You've obviously never been to high school."

"You are a child, not a queen," another King shot. 

"I am a young woman." Right on, her cousin thought. 

"You cannot fulfill your father's duties." "I can," she insisted, looking at Lilith. "With Lilith as my advisor." "What?" "Isn't that what kings and queens do when they're too young to rule?" she argued. "They appoint a…" "Regent," Lilith offered. "Yes. As a matter of fact, yes." "Then you, Lilith, are my regent."

"I dispute this." Caliban, of course. 

"Okay, Dirt-Man," Genevieve said. She had begun to harbor a deeply personal sense of loathing for him, especially because of how he disrespected her cousin's authority and was a raging narcissist. 

After an attempted challenge for the crown, Sabrina dismissed the court and he and his clique left Pandemonium. She and the rest of the group, along with Nick and his tongue, followed Dorian's instructions and used the flower and the incantation to return home. 

— 

Sabrina had royally fucked up— no pun intended. After fumbling her first soul retrieval and getting locked in an industrial freezer by her second, she was beginning to lose hope. And she was running out of time. While Lilith was out searching for the wayward queen, the clay prince decided to go on his own adventure.

— 

Genevieve was occupied in her cozy, bright room when a gust of spiraling flames interrupted her peace. She had been lying in her bed, reading a book and accompanied by all of her pets (which was a rare occurrence). Pico had nestled onto Tuck's shell and they were both napping. Bambi was curled up against her side and Tex at her feet, and the new snake— whose name, she decided, was Rhiannon— was also curled at the end of the bed. "Quite the companions you've got," he spoke deeply, disturbing the silence. "You!" she said, sitting up and starting all but the python. "What are you doing in my room?" she asked, exasperated. 

"Here to see you, of course," he told her, sitting down on the edge of her bed. Genevieve

was still perplexed. 

"...Why?"

"You amuse me, mortal. And you've caught my eye. Your friend may be the Queen of Hell—"

"Cousin," she corrected.

"Your cousin may be Queen, but it's you who's really captured my attention."

"I… Okay," she responded, brows furrowed.

"No one's ever spoken to me as boldly as you have. Especially for a mortal. If I wanted to punish you, in fact, it would be well within my rights. Even your cousin could not do anything about it; laws in Hell differ than on Earth."

"So, what. You're here to kill me? Because I threatened your ego?" Genevieve rolled her eyes and got up, Bambi following after her. She grabbed Rhiannon and carried her over to her tank, flipping the switch for her heater and closing the lid. She then grabbed Tuck, as gently as possible to allow him to keep napping, and put him in his tank as well.

"Of course not," he chuckled. "You're much too interesting. It would be a shame for your potential to go to waste." "Potential," she said, disinterested. Walking to her door, she slipped on a pair of shoes that sat against the wall. "For?"

"For you to align with me. You may not like me much now, but I'm sure you'll grow to."

"For me… I'm sorry, what? You expect me to betray my cousin for someone who wants to literally enslave my people and take over the Earth?" He said nothing. "No!" she waved her hand at him, signaling for him to leave. "Be gone. Or... whatever you say to banish demons." She left her room and headed down the hallway and to the stairs, but Caliban was not far behind. Neither was Bambi.

She made a pit stop in the kitchen to make herself a sandwich before she left the house. "Do you think me unreasonable?" Caliban asked, leaning against the counter while she worked. 

"Well, yeah. Actually I do." 

He grabbed her hand before she could continue. Making sure to never break eye contact, he pleaded, "Please. Let me prove you wrong." She pulled her hand away.

"Why are you so dead set on this?" she groaned. "I said no!" A frustrated laugh left her lips.

"I'll make you a deal," he pressed. She returned her attention to her sandwich and refused to look at him. "Submit to me, and I will abandon my plan to enslave the tribes of Earth." Still, silence. Genevieve pretended that he wasn't even there anymore, slipping Bambi a piece of turkey in between the two of them. Once again, Caliban brought his hand up and grabbed her chin; she couldn't turn away. 

"You won't get the chance," she spat. "My cousin is the Queen. Your plan will never happen." He opened his mouth to argue, but in a split second, decided against it. 

"If that's truly how you feel, then I concede. But know my offer still stands." Genevieve shrugged, straight-faced, unsure how to respond. 

"Will you leave now? I have somewhere to be," she told him, putting her sandwich in a baggie and walking to the kitchen table where a backpack was hanging off the back of a chair. 

"Will the lady allow me to escort her?" he countered. She threw her food, a water bottle, and a sports drink into the bag as she considered it. 

"Fine, I guess." She slung the backpack over her shoulder before kneeling down to scratch and kiss Bambi's head. "Bye, Bambi!" she said, her voice having gone up at least an octave. The blue pit thumped her tail and opened her mouth in a typical pit bull smile. Without a word, she stood up and passed Caliban to go retrieve her sneakers which were sitting by the front door. He followed, attentive to her every move. She locked the door behind her on her way out and began walking into town. 

"Where are you headed to?" he asked her.

"The gym. I coach junior high volleyball."

"Is that a mortal sport?"

"Yeah. I played for a long time."

"Why did you stop?" 

Genevieve stayed silent for a beat. "When I was still in high school, a few colleges wanted to recruit me for their teams. I would have gone to any of them, but…"

"But what?" "Well, I don't really know what I want to do with my life. I didn't want to just up and leave my family with no plan. So after I graduated this spring, I decided to take a gap year to figure out what I want to do."

"Have you figured it out yet?" he asked. His tone seemed genuinely interested. 

She stayed quiet for a while longer. "No," Genevieve admitted, dejectedly.

"Maybe you should work with animals," Caliban offered. "Really? Why?"

"You seem to like them enough, you've got several as pets."

"Yeah, that's fair. But I don't think I could ever be a vet," she claimed. 

"Then don't. Try something else."

"Like what?"

"You're the mortal here, not me," he chuckled. "You know more about your options than I do." Genevieve let out a little laugh as well. "Think about it," he advised her. 

"I will. Thank you, Caliban."

— 

Sabrina didn't return home until well past midnight. As she walked through the front door and quietly closed it, her cousin broke her silence from the stairs. "Where you been, Beans?"

Sabrina nearly jumped, startled. "I was— Oh, Aunties," she muttered, finally facing all three of them. 

"Well, do you care to explain yourself?" Zelda questioned. Sabrina glanced at Genevieve, who was leaning over the top of the banister and mouthed I didn't say anything.

"Oh, I'm sorry I missed your first day at the Academy," she apologized. "I had this prob-"

"How many secrets are you keeping from us?" Zelda interrupted.

Hilda piped up in typical good-cop fashion. "You didn't happen to go to Hell, bring back your father, the Dark Lord, and stick him in the bowels of the Academy without telling us, did you?"

"Putting what's left of the coven, not to mention the entire world, in grave peril, just so you can see your boyfriend." 

"That's not why I did it," Sabrina argued. 

"Oh, God. Here we go again," Genevieve muttered as Tex jumped up onto the bannister beside her. She gave his head an absent-minded scratch as she watched the scene unfold. 

"Oh, I know why you did it. Cassius delivered a stack of books with rituals about soul transference… I thought the Dark Lord was bad. I thought he was dangerous, but Lilith preserve up from his demented, lovesick daughter."

"Aunt Zelda!" Genevieve shouted. "That was so uncalled for!"

"I couldn't just leave Nick in Hell!" Sabrina defended herself. "Every second he was down there, he was in torment. Aunties, every second he was in pain."

"We know, darling," Hilda tried to comfort. 

"And it's my fault." Her cousin began to tear up with the thought of Nick's suffering. "He did it for me. I couldn't just… wash my hands of him." Hilda stepped off of the stairs and went to Sabrina to try to comfort her. "I owed it to Nick to at least try and get Lucifer out of his body and into someone else's."

Zelda had begun to abandon her condemnation of Sabrina's actions, instead demanding that she come up with a well thought-out plan. "Whose? Where do you expect to find another vessel strong enough to withstand being turned into a flesh Acheron for the Devil himself?"

In a moment of perfect timing, Ambrose and Prudence appeared in the front hallway with a raggedy, bearded man at their feet. "Aunties," he greeted. "I'm home." It was evident in his tone and lack of breath that he was exhausted. "Any chance of a cuppa?"

Genevieve went downstairs and followed her cousin and Prudence into the kitchen. 'Whatcha want, 'Bose?"

"Something to help me sleep, finally," he rasped. "Thank you, cousin." (They weren't really cousins, but it was how they had referred to each other since Genevieve had come to live with them those 8 years ago.)

"You too?" she asked Prudence. "Yes, please."

— 

  The next night, Sabrina returned home and immediately headed to Genevieve's room to de-stress from her arduous day. "That jerk Caliban challenged me for the throne," she sighed, laying down on Genevieve's bed. "Again. Legally, this time. And I had to accept it."

Her cousin took a deep breath. "Wow. He's really not letting it go, huh?"

"No. I wish he would, though."

"Well, what was the challenge? What do you have to do?"

"We're both supposed to search for the Unholy Regalia. It's a Hell thing," she explained at Genevieve's confusion. "The first item is Herod's Crown."

"H- King Herod? Like 'kill the babies' Herod?"

"That's the one."

"Jesus," Genevieve exhaled. "...No pun intended." She had been sitting on the floor with Rhiannon, watching as she explored the room, but stood up to sit next to her cousin. "Beans, you've got a lot on your plate right now. Are you sure you're gonna be okay?"

Sabrina considered her question for a moment. "No. Actually, I'm not sure. But I have to do this." She shut her eyes tight for a few seconds before opening them again and sitting upright. "And I have so much homework on top of this."

"You know what? I don't have anything to do tonight. You go to bed, I'll do your homework tonight." Sabrina smiled softly at her cousin. 

"Vieve, you don't have to do that—"

"I know. But I want to. You need to rest. Besides," Genevieve said, "I already got through all of those classes once. I can do a few assignments tonight."

— 

It was about eleven o'clock that same night and Genevieve was on a productive streak- in terms of getting her cousin's homework taken care of. She had advised Sabrina to talk to Ambrose the following day about looking for the crown and, subsequently, the rest of the regalia. In the midst of her focus, a gust of heat hit her and she could sense a presence in her room. She didn't even bother to turn around from her desk. "Go away, Caliban."

"I take it you've heard about my challenge, then?"

Genevieve set her pencil down and stared at him. "Do you have any idea the shit Sabrina's been going through, lately? I know you don't care, because all you want is power, but she's an actual person with other responsibilities and an entire life that she's dealing with on a daily basis. You're made of clay and you're from Hell, I get it, you must not have any sense of empathy, but this is taking a toll on everyone. You are such a raging narcissist." Caliban's smirk had dissipated by now. "Get out of my house, Caliban. I'm busy."

"You're wrong," he said. He was uncharacteristically quiet. "I can be empathetic." He sat down on the edge of Genevieve's bed, and Tex had allowed him to pet his head. "I do have emotions."

"Showing them from time to time might do you good." He said nothing, focusing his attention entirely on Tex rather than making eye contact with Genevieve. "Why are you here?" she asked, adopting a gentler tone. She felt as if she had been hard enough on him to get her point across. "Don't you have a crown to find, or something?"

"I've not yet located it. I was wondering if you've considered my offer?"

"Of course not," she scoffed. "I don't think you're gonna win. Beans may be busy, but she's smart. And talented."

"Well, she is the Dark Lord's daughter."

"Regardless. No, I haven't considered it. Is that all?"

"I hear there's a carnival in town."

Her brows furrowed momentarily. "What do you care?"

"Would it please the lady to accompany me? Tomorrow night?"

Genevieve went stiff like a deer in headlights. "Um… sure, okay. I guess?"

"You seem confused," he observed. 

"Yeah, I- I am. A little. Surprised. Why do you wanna go to the carnival?"

"Is this not how mortals court each other?" he asked, standing up to lean against the desk she had been working at. He seemed his usual self again, another smirk crossing his face. "Or would you rather skip the formalities?" He winked, grinning down at her. Though she was still sitting, it was obvious that he was taller than she was. 

She scoffed lightly. "Fine. I will go to the carnival with you tomorrow," Genevieve conceded. "Are you done now?"

"Are you sure you wouldn't have me spend the night?" he teased. 

"Don't push it, Dirt-Man."

"As you wish," he told her, and threw his arms up, creating a vortex of fire and returning to the pits of hell. 

— 

Genevieve finally retired to bed at about quarter till 1 in the morning. Rhiannon was cozy in her tank and Tuck was in his; Pico was sleeping in his cage and Tex was curled up at the foot of her bed. Bambi was laying with her back to Genevieve's, but the blue pit had been awoken by a sudden presence appearing in the room. In the dark, Caliban had returned once more to the girl, this time having astral projected. Bambi's head stuck up, sniffing at him. He put his finger up to his lips and whispered to the dog, "Shh." Bambi was convinced and went back to sleep, leaving the boy to himself. He walked around until he was facing her, and he knelt down at her bedside. He rested his head on one arm while his other hand brushed some stray hairs away from her face. She looked so peaceful he was almost afraid to touch her. "Sleep well, darling girl," he whispered. "And forgive me for what I must do." Without another word, he kissed her forehead and promptly returned to his physical body in Hell. 

[ibijau]

how about... chengxuan with 5, 10, and/or 15? if you would be willing to water my crops with a shower of angst i would be greatly indebted

You asked for it :)

warning for some mentions of homophobia/internalised homobophia

“Wake up, please wake up.” /  “it hurts.”/ “don’t move, they hit your head really hard.”

‘It’ll be a great bonding chance’ Jiang Yanli had said, and ‘A-Cheng loves Night Hunts as much as you do, don’t you want to go with someone other than your cousin sometimes?’ but also, and more treacherously, she’d smiled in that resigned way that made Jin Zixuan ache and said ‘I want my family to get along’. What could he have said against that? She had lost her parents, the man she’d treated as a brother had betrayed their sect to help their former enemies. All Jiang Yanli had was her grandmother (who Jin Zixuan had charmed as best as she could, but who mostly cared that he was rich and his father powerful) and her blood brother (who had apparently never forgiven Jin Zixuan for his youthful mistakes).

Jin Zixuan had agreed.

For Jiang Yanli, he would have agreed to anything.

Which isn’t to say that he doesn’t regret this Night Hunt about a quarter of a shichen in. Jiang Cheng, who arrived at their meeting point early, accuses him of being late. He then criticises everything about Jin Zixuan, from the bow he brought to his posture as they fly together, the strength of his talismans, the expression on his face. Jin Zixuan bites his tongue and keeps silent, but he does not care for the nagging sensation that he’s being compared to Wei Wuxian and found lacking.

This is for Jiang Yanli, he tells himself several times as they stalk the group of monsters that has been causing trouble near a much frequented road. It’s fine that Jiang Cheng is an authoritative little shit who refuses to listen to his suggestions, who throws it in his face that regardless of age, he has the higher status now. This is all for Jiang Yanli who will be so proud of Jin Zixuan for his efforts, who will praise him and smile at him like she truly believes he’s a good man and not just a rich brat.

If Jin Zixuan is very lucky, Jiang Yanli will even scold her brother for his behaviour. Gently, of course, she’s always gentle, but… a scolding is a scolding and Jin Zixuan would feel very avenged.

It will be nice.

It would have been nice.

Seeing Jiang Cheng scolded is now the furthest thing on Jin Zixuan’s mind, because his future brother-in-law is…

He can’t even say how it happened. Or perhaps he can tell too well. The creatures described to them were no match for them, great heroes of the Sunshot Campaign, and so they were careless. They attacked faster than they should have, with less care. They didn’t check that all of the monsters were truly gathered, didn’t expect it when reinforcements arrived in greater numbers than imagined. 

Jin Zixuan tried to warn Jiang Cheng when he noticed some creatures sneak up behind him, but it was too late, just a second too late, and Jiang Cheng…

Red trailed behind him as he collapsed.

Jin Zixuan, moved by despair and rage (what would Jiang Yanli say? She’d be cancelling the engagement this time, and there would be no going back, not if he let her brother die) quickly eliminated the monsters still standing, and now he’s…

He’s sent a distress signal of course. They’re close enough to Lanling that it should be seen. They’ll be rescued soon enough.

Hopefully it will be soon enough.

Because Jiang Cheng is… his head is bleeding a lot, the bone of his skull dented in a way that Jin Zixuan can feel under his fingers. It is not a wound he can try to heal. He’s not skilled enough to begin with, healing isn’t something he knows a lot about, and an injury of that sort is too serious, too much could go wrong.

At least, Jiang Cheng is still conscious, and that’s good. Jin Zixuan doesn’t know much, but he knows he has to keep Jiang Cheng awake. It’s important because… he doesn’t know. He can’t remember. He never bothered to learn, maybe. He just knows that Jiang Cheng can’t sleep.

“Well, at least now you have a reason to hate me,” Jin Zixuan says, pinching Jiang Cheng’s arm hard to keep him awake.

“Don’t hate you,” Jiang Cheng grumbles, his words slurred. His eyes are unfocused as he glares up toward Jin Zixuan, clearly unhappy to have his head on the lap of his brother-in-law. It’s an awkward position, but Jin Zixuan wants to keep a close eye on his wound and this seems the easiest way.

“Jiang zongzhu, there’s little point in lying when it’s just the two of us,” Jin Zixuan retorts. “You’ve always hated me. You can say it. Your sister isn’t here to mind.”

Jiang Cheng frowns somewhat, which is a good sign. Anger is his natural state. If he can be annoyed, then he’s got to be fine.

“Don’t hate you,” Jiang Cheng insists, trying to sit up, only to wince. “It hurts.”

“Don’t move!” Jin Zixuan scolds him. “They hit your head really hard, of course it hurts.”

“Sleepy.”

Jin Zixuan pinches Jiang Cheng again, harder. There might be bruises later. Jin Zixuan prays to any god willing to listen to let there be a later.

“Don’t sleep,” he orders, his tone a perfect imitation of his mother’s. “Talk to me. Tell me… tell me why you hate me so much. I imagine that should be an easy subject.”

Jin Zixuan, of course, knows already why Jiang Cheng hates him. While Jiang Cheng himself has managed to keep a veneer of politeness around his hatred, Wei Wuxian has been vocal enough for both of them. Jin Zixuan can’t even blame them. He really was that bad as a youth. He hopes he’s improved. Jiang Yanli seems to believe he has, at least.

Jiang Cheng scoffs weakly.

“Don’t hate you,” he repeats, stubborn even in such a state. “Wanted to hate you. It’d have been easy. I still remember the first time you came to Lotus Piers. All in gold, looking like a young god. Never seen anyone so pretty, thought I was dreaming.”

That’s not the answer Jin Zixuan expected. He tries to recall that first visit, but he can’t remember how Jiang Cheng behaved that time. All his attention had been on Jiang Yanli, his fiancée from birth who he’d been so determined to despise.

“Wanted you to look at me,” Jiang Cheng whispers, closing his eyes. Jin Zixuan pinches him, and his eyes open again, trying to catch Jin Zixuan’s. “Always wanted you to look at me, but everyone told me you were here for Yanli. I hated it. Nothing good was ever for me. First Wei Wuxian was getting father, and now jiejie was getting you… it was unfair.”

Jiang Cheng takes a deep breath, and looks away.

“Was so happy when the engagement fell apart, and Wei Wuxian left,” he confesses, so low Jin Zixuan barely hears it. “I’m a bad son, a bad brother. I was so happy, I thought maybe I could have you. Wanted to be your friend. Wanted to talk to you. Study with you. We’d have made good friends, no?”

“Why didn’t you try to become friends then?” Jin Zixuan asks.

He’s not curious, not really, it’s just to keep Jiang Cheng talking. And if his heart beats faster it’s only because he’s worried, nothing else.

Jiang Cheng grimaces.

“Was going to. But heard you… Huaisang was joking about his print collection, how he had something for every taste, even cut-sleeves. Heard you say it was disgusting and wrong. Couldn’t speak to you after that.”

If their first meeting has been forgotten, Jin Zixuan does, in fact, remember that conversation with Nie Huaisang. Hearing the other boy speak so easily of his interest in men had sparked jealousy in him who had long struggled with the fact that he looked at other boys more than he should have. Back then, he’d been terrified that his father would notice and disown him. It didn’t matter than he liked girls too, his father would only have seen this blemish and gotten rid of him. Even his mother might have… 

Jin Zixuan hasn’t thought of his attraction to men in a while. Not since he started falling for Jiang Yanli, truly falling for her. He recalls, though, how relieved he was when he realised that he was in love with a woman. It used to terrify him that if he someday truly felt love, it might be for a man. But Jiang Yanli saved him from that. And he does love her, not just because she’s a woman, but because she is kind and gentle and determined and hides steel under her warmth. She is the most unique person he’s ever met, and he loves her so much.

He adores his future wife.

And yet some traitorous part of his heart wonders what might have happened if Jiang Cheng had talked to him and offered friendship back in Gusu. Jin Zixuan has never… he’s never really considered Jiang Cheng, never seen him as more than a thorn in his side, but he’s… he’s handsome, and strong, with the same inhuman resilience as his sister and…

He looks down at Jiang Cheng, and finds that the other man has closed his eyes. Jin Zixuan urgently pinches him. In a twisted way, it’s almost a relief when Jiang Cheng doesn’t react right away, because it gives him something to focus on.

“Wake up! Please, wake up,” Jin Zixuan urges. “Think of your sister, she’ll be disappointed if you die like this. Don’t you want to be there at her wedding?”

Jiang Cheng grumbles weakly.

“If you die here, then I’ll have to ask Jin Zixun to help organise things instead of you,” Jin Zixuan points out.

Jiang Cheng’s eyes snap open. “‘ver my dead body,” he mutters. “Little shit has no taste.” He sighs. “‘m sleepy.”

“Then tell me something else. Tell me… remember when we escaped that cave after Wen Chao trapped us with that monster? You had to run home to get help for Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. Tell me about that, about the way you got home and rescued them.”

Jiang Cheng blinks weakly. He does look so sleepy, but Jin Zixuan insists and keeps pinching him until he starts telling that story. It’s not much of a tale, Jiang Cheng isn’t a born story-teller, but it keeps him awake and focused and that’s all Jin Zixuan wants.

Jiang Cheng has to stay awake until they’re rescued, and then…

And then, for everyone’s good, it’s best if they both forget this conversation.

[sapphia]

alright so i don’t write fanfiction anymore and i haven’t even really been in this fandom for years, but if i was writing supernatural, here’s how the destiel thing would have played out: 

they gay plotline would happen about season 9-11, pacing wise. cas and dean are close and have a shared bond, and know each other pretty well at this point, but things haven’t started getting repetitive yet plot wise. the season big bad is irrelevant because lets be honest they’re all pretty much the same. 

dean and cas have spent their time in purgatory together, and i’d move the purgatory reveal flashbacks from season 15 into season 8 alongside the normal flashbacks. 

you have your usual series opener in episode one with the massive conflict semi-resolving but also setting up the season’s big bad. at this point in episode one, cas sacrifices himself for dean specifically, but also helping advance the “mission” - however, while one of them had to die to keep the other alive so the job could be finished, it could have been either of them, not necessarily cas.

this of course spawns a bit of emotional angst, with dean being hit pretty hard by cas’s death. there’s a hint that his reaction is more emotion extreme than say, bobby or jo’s death, but still a bit less than if sam had died - and also notably takes it harder than sam. this sets up the fact that cas is more than just a tag along to dean. 

cas will be brought back about episode 4 (method irrelevant), and there’ll be an emotional reveal, but nothing too out of the ordinary. everyone’s just happy to see him alive again. there’ll be dialogue specific to dean and cas, of course, but just your generic “glad you’re back/what happened while i was away” catch up

episode 5 will have no destiel content, but there will be a minor male character who sort of flirts with dean. dean doesn’t reciprocate, and is flustered, but also doesn’t reject him (perhaps because he’s flustered), setting the stage for dean-is-not-straight-and-has-repressed-bi-feelings, but this is pretty minor and easily overlooked. sam witnesses this moment.

in episode 7, you’ll have a cas/dean centric ep, where they go off and investigate either by themselves or in a way that has sam occupied and away from them for a lot of the episode. they have a mini confrontation early/mid episode where dean says cas shouldn’t have sacrificed himself, that they could have found another way, that cas should have been the one to complete the mission and dean to die. 

cas’s response here will hint at his thoughts in 15x18 regarding what dean’s done for him, but much briefer. he implies that he’d rather dean had lived; dean is a good man, and cas sort of “owes” him this because dean has helped him find his humanity. he doesn’t confess his love or anything, but the implication that cas feels love (of some sort) because of knowing dean is definitely there. 

dean should be a little uncomfortable at the raw emotions of this scene, and pulls back, though castiel will remain earnest and completely unbothered by dean’s difficulty dealing with what he’s saying

the episode continues, and the hunt goes as normal, but towards the end, dean gets injured (head or face wound). cas heals him easily, but there is a moment that lingers a little too long, with cas’s hand on dean’s face. dean is a part of it - he feels it too - but it freaks him out and he ends the moment, pretending it didn’t happen. they carry on packing up/continuing the hunt/whatever they were doing before, but the final shot of the scene is dean looking at cas and wondering - what the hell was that? 

this is going to be played out pretty slow over the series, so in between the core relationship developing episodes there’ll be normal monster of the week episodes with just your normal amount of destiel subtext. the episode following cas and dean’s moment, for example, (episode 8 and 9) will be your average sam/dean/cas hunt with nothing more than a couple of small moments between cas and dean where cas is perhaps a little too intense and dean pulls away, or there’s an awkwardness between them, especially from dean’s side. episode 10 doesn’t have cas in it at all,  because dean has made an excuse to separate himself from cas - i.e. dean jumps at the opportunity to give cas a task that means he’ll be hunting separately to him and sam

episode 11 will be a sam/dean hunt, but in the middle of the episode they find a clue/information that they need cas’s help trying to decode. sam suggests praying for cas to show up, and dean says well go ahead then. sam doesn’t make a fuss about dean not doing it himself (though he may be a bit surprised) and he prays to cas - but nothing happens. dean sighs and rolls his eyes, and says “cas, you there? we need some help” and cas appears. 

sam is (sort of) mock offended that cas comes when dean calls and not him, and cas says that he was busy and would have heard sam eventually if he’d tried praying again later, but dean has an easier time breaking through via prayer than sam (ala the “dean and i share a more profound bond” moment in season 5(?i think). like then, sam is mock offended, but isn’t really surprised. dean is keen to move the conversation past this and get cas’s help with the hunt, which cas provides, and cas decides to stick around to help fight the episode’s monster. 

the episode facilitates a scene where cas and sam are left alone on the hunt with some downtime to talk (perhaps because dean is avoiding cas) and sam brings it up, a bit curious - does cas hear dean better because cas pulled him from hell? cas admits he isn’t sure exactly what the reason is - perhaps it also has something to do with the way dean has affected him as a person. he finds that despite himself, he cares for dean more deeply than anyone else - and his feelings remain unchanged by the fact that dean seems to be avoiding him right now. but he finishes by saying he can’t help that his thoughts are more attuned to dean at all times, and that he finds himself thinking of him far too often, which probably leads to dean’s prayers finding him easier than other people’s. 

sam is pretty shocked/surprised at this - it sounds like cas is saying he’s in love with his brother. cas doesn’t confirm this explicitly, but sort of agrees, saying something along the lines of “that is a possibility”, as though he’s not quite sure. 

sam’s still processing this - can angels even fall in love? cas assures him that they can (maybe gives an example of another angel this has happened to) though it doesn’t happen often and has never really ended well. 

the scene ends either a bit awkwardly, with sam still being “oh my god what is going on” and castiel being earnest and sort of oblivious to sam’s shock, or with an attempt at lightheartedness from sam. the episode continues as normal, though sam now gets to hunt with dean and castiel with the new secret knowledge that one of them is in love with the other one and the other one probably doesn’t know. but he doesn’t really know what to do with that information, so he does nothing, just observes. 

episode 13 has no cas in it again, and it’s a sam/dean hunt. but here’s where it gets interesting - the monster is preying on men at a gay bar. 

the hunt they’re on has people going missing who have recently frequented the bar. one of the bartenders there is obviously gay, and flirts with dean a little bit during their initial questioning, even giving him his number at the end, which throws dean. sam sees the end of this interaction and notes it with amusement. 

they continue investigating - clues (or another disappearance) lead back to the gay bar, so they decide they have to check it out again. when there, they spot the same bar-tender again, and sam makes a joking comment that dean will probably get more out of him than sam will, so dean better go talk to him. dean does, and manages to be a bit more casual now he’s not as taken off-guard. dean gets the information out of him that he needs, but the conversation also hits more casual/personal territory - come comments are about what it’s like doing the job dean does, etc. dean might make a cryptic comment that hints about the supernatural nature of their work, not that the bartender would pick up on it, and answers in a way that’s both true to dean’s actual life but could be mistaken as being a thing an fbi agent would say. the bartender is less flirty during this conversation, but when he does make flirty comments, dean takes it much better and continues the conversation easily, and despite himself dean finds himself warming up to this guy. 

the hunt continues. in the early scenes, when sam and dean roll into town, dean will see two guys heavily making out outside the club, and looks away (in a prudish/not wanting to watch someone’s PDA sort of way). later in the episode, either right before the climax or right after, there will be a moment where dean sees another moment of PDA between two guys (possibly more of a sweeter scene, like holding hands, or canoodling), and dean watches for a moment, somewhat longingly. the episode won’t address it, but this is his moment where internally he starts wondering if maybe he wants that. 

the episode heads towards the conclusion when the monster takes another victim - and lo and behold, it’s our bartender. but dean and sam are getting close to finding it, and they hunt it to it’s lair. sam deals with the monster while dean rescues the bartender. it’s a generic rescue scene, and dean is very compassionate and reassuring, and the bartender is quite freaked out, as to be expected. the wrap up scene, where they take him home/back to his car/wherever, has him asking dean about what else is out there, and dean is honest - there are lots of creatures that lurk in the dark. but hopefully the bartender won’t see any more of them. if he does, here’s dean’s card - call him and dean will come. the bartender makes a joke about using it for a booty-call/to get a date with dean, and dean jokes back in a way that rebuffs that, but in a light and friendly manner. 

the series continues. there is one more dean/sam hunt and then a dean/sam/cas hunt. dean seems a little but more at ease with cas during this.

in episode 16, dean gets a call from the bartender. he picks up the phone and makes a joke about how this wasn’t supposed to be used for booty calls - before turning serious at the bartender’s answer. something is going down in that town again, and he wants dean to come check it out. dean promises he’s on his way and hangs up. 

sam is ready to go with dean, but dean tells him he’s going to go on his own. sam is surprised, but lets him. 

dean goes to the bartender’s town and investigates. something is going down, and this time the bar tender helps him along the way. there is an easy chemistry between the two of them, the sort of familiarity characters have when meeting dean and sam for the second or third time rather than the first. the bartender assists in the investigation, so is around dean a lot, and flirts with him on occasion. in contrast the previous episode, dean is much more at ease with it, he even flirts back a little at one point. but it could still all be in good fun - it doesn’t have to imply anything. 

3/4 of the way through the episode, before they go after and kill the monster, there is a slow/waiting/resting scene where dean and the bartender have the opportunity to just chat. they talk about the monster/hunting/the lifestyle a wee bit - and dean shows him something about the monster on the laptop, or in a book, or gives him a weapon and shows him how to use it - whatever it is, they get physically close for some reason. the bartender makes another flirtatious comment, and dean isn’t too sure how to respond this time. the bartender shrugs it off - it’s just some fun, he knows dean’s straight, it’s fine. 

dean’s mind is racing a hundred miles a minute, and he’s feeling an absolute cascade of emotions. maybe, he croaks out, maybe he isn’t as straight as you might think.

it’s pretty clear where this is going lol. they have a moment, they kiss, idk maybe they have sex, maybe it’s implied or left ambiguous. camera cuts away. 

when we come back to them, the plot has accelerated and it’s time to go after the monster (immediately, right now, before anyone can talk about what just happened). they hunt the monster, dean does the bulk of the work but there’s a crucial moment where bartender saves dean, mirroring the way dean saved him in his first appearance and allowing dean to finish the monster off. 

the wrap up/goodbye scene is a bit awkward, both not too sure where they stand, but there is a moment where dean admits that he liked what happened between them. but it’s pretty obvious it can’t continue - dean has to keep hunting, and the bartender is not here for that life - he likes all his limbs attached. they keep the door open though about seeing each other in future - maybe a comment about where dean’s based, and the bartender says he’s heading through that way in a month or so, maybe he can pop in and say hi, and dean agrees. 

dean goes back to the bunker, reconnects with sam who’s wrapped up his b-plot. dean is deliberately vague about the case details, and sam gets the feeling something’s off. then dean gets a call, and he takes it - but he’s squirrelly about it. 

sam’s suspicious and is worried something is really wrong. he follows dean and listens to his call - he hears dean say “hey [bartender]”, and the conversation that follows, which basically boils down to - the bartender is actually going to be in dean’s area next week instead, it turns out, maybe they could catch up, and dean says sure, but his brother is around, and dean hasn’t exactly told him about what happened or come out to him, so they have to be a bit on the downlow. he doesn’t want to seem sleazy, but maybe they could get a hotel room? cut to sam, looking pretty surprised lmao and sort of creeping away quietly, feeling bad for eavesdropping on such a personal conversation and now processing the fact that his brother is (he thinks) gay. 

ep 17 is a week later and  dean and sam are called to a case miles away - right when the bartender is supposed to visit. dean takes a private call where he regretfully tells the bartender he’s not going to be around - they won’t be able to catch up this time. this secretive behaviour reminds sam (and the audience) of dean’s secret. 

sam sort of spends the whole episode waiting for dean to come out to him, which doesn’t happen because this is still really new to dean and he’s not sure he’s ready for it. it’d be kinda fun/funny if they were fucking around with some sort of truth goddess or something, but regardless there’ll be opportunities for sam to poke dean about general things he might not be saying. sam also drops a couple of massive hints that he thinks gay people are awesome which dean obliviously ignores (or maybe starts cluing into towards the end of the episode). 

but by the time they’ve defeated whatever it is they’re hunting, dean still hasn’t said anything about being gay so while they’re in the impala diving home, sam’s like “you know, if you were gay, i’d be okay with it” and dean’s like “yeah i’m not gay” and sams like “I heard you on the phone with bartender, sounded pretty gay” and dean’s like “okay yeah we banged. but i’m not gay, i’m bi” and sams like “woah. and you never said anything?” and dean talks about how it’s sort of been coming on for a while now but he’s been trying to ignore it because he didn’t think he was that person, or maybe how there was something with a guy a long time ago but he repressed it, etc etc. and sams like “well that’s cool and you’re still my big brother, i still love you, that’s never going to change” yada yada and there’s an awesome emotional scene and they drive off into the sunset. 

BUT we still have the cas/dean plotline to wrap up in the last few episodes. sam know knows cas loves dean and dean’s bi but doesn’t know if dean loves cas and also doesn’t want to say anything in case he shouldn’t. but also wonders whether he should because it seems like dean might have feelings for cas, so as we head towards the final episodes sam keeps trying to push cas and dean into situations alone together but it’s not working very well, although they’re obviously really fucking close and sam can see just how much dean loves cas and cas loves dean but neither of them can actually see it, and eventually (like, one episode from the finale) cas says something implying quite obviously that he has feelings for dean and then leaves and dean’s totally oblivious and sam is practically banging his head against a brick wall out of frustration and just caves and is like “you know cas is in love with you, right?” and deans like “no” and sam is like “well he is. he told me” and dean’s like “whaaaaat” 

but there’s no time for dean to like, talk to cas about this, only a small amount of time where he processes his feelings for him (maybe like one scene together a but a third character is there the whole time, so dean can think about what sam told him, but can’t say anything to cas) and then the finale is really kicking off, and they’re fighting whatever the big bad is, and again there’s comes this point where someone has to sacrifice themselves and this time dean’s like “no cas i told you earlier, i don’t want you sacrificing yourself, this time it’s my turn” and cas is says “no let me, i want to do this” and dean’s like “yeah but i don’t want you to because i love you” and does the thing that should kill him

except at the last minute something else happens which stops that (sam like kills the big bad by taking it by surprise or something) and so dean doesn’t die (maybe he’s a bit injured though and cas has to heal him) and cas goes to him and there’s a very emotional scene where they elaborate on the love confession and kiss each other and sam’s like “i can’t believe a month ago i thought these men were straight”. 

and because this is supernatural something immediately goes wrong and by killing this big bad they’ve actually triggered the rising of the next big bad so there’s your plot for the next season you’re welcome, but hey now they’re gay together you’re welcome SPN writers please pay me to reboot your series in the way dean deserved. 

[holeyweasel]

༄ daniel padilla, cismale, he/him + the color orange, impressive explosions, fireworks in the night sky, trolley carts ignited into flames, graffiti on stop signs, and quivering palms concealed by a nifty hand-buzzer. – is that george weasley ? their ministry records say that they are twenty-five , a pureblood , and went to hogwarts . currently they are the owner of weasley’s wizard wheezes . whenever i see them saintlike by jakey starts playing in my head. i think this may be because they’re astute & whimsical , but they also happen to be deviant & reticent . (       BIOGRAPHY. | PINTEREST. | PLAYLIST.     )

TRIGGER WARNING: MENTIONS OF ALCOHOL & SUBSTANCE ABUSE / ALLUSIONS TO ALCOHOLISM.

basics .

name & origin : george felix weasley ; based on the Greek word georgos; meaning farmer. the word georgos is a combo of two Greek words, ge (γῆ), meaning earth, soil, and ergon (ἔργον), meaning work. && george doesn't apply much of a personal meaning to his name; perhaps molly was following the trend of her late, twin brothers, gideon & fabian, or maybe it'd just been a coincidence. george doesn't know; it's possible he never will, since molly doesn't talk about her brothers that have passed too often. nicknames : forge, fred, georgie, gred, twin #2, & weasel. preferred name : george is fine. age & birthdate : twenty-five ; april first. gender & pronouns : cis male ; he/him. orientation : straight ; heteroflexible ; questioning. ethnicity & nationality : filipino ; english. hometown : ottery st. catchpole, devon, england. current residence : the loft above number ninty-three diagon alley. occupation : owner & operator of weasley’s wizard wheezes. hogwarts house / school graduated from : gryffindor.

miscellaneous .

phobias : he can’t be alone, because when he is, that’s when he gets into more compromising situations. he excessively relies on others to fulfill his own emotional needs (eg. fred, specifically) his codependency to fred ran, and continues to run, so deep that even his level of confidence changes without his brother around. he needs fred around to feel okay with himself. he fears being rejected and abandoned as lone unit; rather than the one collective unit he was with fred. quirks : when disinterested in something, doesn’t put the effort in; rarely expresses his true emotions unless it’s through anger; jokes so much it’s hard to tell when he’s being serious; sometimes doesn’t realize when a joke has gone too far & unintentionally hurts people’s feelings. when his emotions are too much to handle, can act rashly, and do something stupid; he often winds up in trouble since he couldn’t careless what others think. also he’s not great at overly complicated math. fred was better at math, while george is better at reading/writing/words in general. basic addition and subtraction is fine, but once you get to double digits? oof. he uses his fingers to count. hobbies : comforting others & giving advice anonymously, creating his own spells & potion recipes, dueling, inventing things, quidditch beating, quick-wit, speed reading, stand-up comedy; there’s never a dull moment with him; he’s always able to entertain an audience and make people laugh. likes : adventures, biscuits, breaking things, causing chaos & confusion, conjuring up ideas & schemes, creating inventions, discovering new things, explosions, fireworks, flashing lights, freedom, friendly debates, hippos, irony, jokes, laughter, memes, mum’s home-cooked meals, parkour, philosophy, petty arson, punching things, puns, quidditch, quotes, rebellion, rioting, sweaters, & unlimited knowledge. dislikes : being alone, being controlled, boredom, commitment, conformists, copycats, cucumbers, disloyalty, early mornings, feelings that aren’t joy, grapefruits, hypocrites (ironically), instant tea, judgmental people, ordinary living, pocket watches, purists, restrictions, school, sellouts, silence, sitting still, spinach, the government, the rich, the status quo, & unnecessary rules. wand :  10 ¾ inches ; dogwood ; dragon heartstring core. patronus : previously, his was a magpie; along with fred’s. since fred’s death, he struggled to conjure one for many years, but eventually was able to - and it’s now a peacock.  boggart : him, completely and utterly alone. without fred or just without anyone in general? the world may never know. reverse amortentia : burning cedar, broom polish, firewhiskey, freshly baked biscuits, & roasted chestnuts.

history .

➵ the fifth son born to arthur & molly weasley right after his twin brother, fred, george was practically born a prankster & inventor. after graduation, he planned to become a successful entrepreneur. from birth, both him & fred were attached at the hip; getting into all sorts of shenanigans together. not much has really changed regarding that. growing up, they successfully set off a dungbomb during christmas dinner, turned ron’s teddy bear into a spider after he broke fred’s toy broomstick, gave ron an acid pop that burnt a hole in his tongue, and nearly tricked ron into taking an unbreakable vow. ➵ during his first year, him and fred swiped the marauder’s map from filch’s desk; this aided more in their mischief. ➵ george, while not being a hat stall, could definitely have been a fair candidate for slytherin with his ambitious & cunning nature — if only he wasn’t a red-headed, reckless weasley. ➵ this curious boi might have a teeny, tiny case of undiagnosed ADHD. he definitely exhibits all of the symptoms; he’s never gotten officially checked out, though.  ➵ second year, he joined the quidditch team as beater. at one point, ron informed harry that george received ”really good marks” for his first few years. ➵ the summer before his fourth year, he stole arthur’s ford anglia with fred and ron. this was in order to rescue harry from the dursley’s and bring him to the burrow. ➵ the summer after fourth year, george went on a trip with his family to visit bill in egypt. with fred, of course, he tried to push percy into a pyramid. ➵ fifth year, he & fred graciously gifted harry the marauder’s map since they’d already memorized it. ➵ sixth year, he attended the quidditch world cup with his family, harry, & hermione. he and fred gambled on the outcome & won a great deal of money from ludo bagman. however, they were never paid, and harassed bagman all year. fred wanted to inform the ministry; george was against it since that’s considered blackmail. after harry won the triwizard tournament, he gifted fred & george his winnings to make up for their lost bet. they put this money away with the intention to invest it into their future joke shop. this is also the year they began selling their inventions and he took his ordinary wizarding level exams; received 3 OWLs in, what’s assumed, charms, defense against the dark arts, & transfiguration. ➵ seventh year, he spent the summer before school at 12 grimmauld place. after being given harry’s winnings, george had no interest in returning to school, but did anyway. he spent most of the year selling his and fred’s products. he also joined dumbledore’s army; not being a huge fan of umbridge. ➵ later that year, umbridge kicked him, harry, and fred off the quidditch team after george & harry got into a fight with draco malfoy. once the DA was discovered, george decided with fred, that he didn’t care about getting in trouble, and they began an all-out rebellion. they shoved an inquisitorial squad member into a vanishing cabinet, set off an array of fireworks that they made themselves, & created a portable swamp in the corridor. after the vandalism & chaos, george flew away from hogwarts with his brother; encouraging others, and peeves, to follow their example. ➵ after fleeing the castle, george worked with fred to establish a weasley’s wizard wheezes storefront. the summer before the golden trio set off for their sixth year, they had their grand opening. they remained open in diagon alley even while growing tensions of the war ensued. draco malfoy even purchased peruvian instant darkness powder from their shop, which assisted him during the battle of the astronomy tower. in theory, the twins unknowingly helped the death eaters twice, but we don’t have to unpack all that right now. ➵ him & fred lived in a loft above their shop. ➵ sometime after turning of age, george joined the order and assisted them during the battle of the seven potters. he was paired with remus lupin, and sometime during this mission, snape hit him with sectumsepra. he lost his ear and it was unable to be healed due to being cut off with dark magic. ➵ the burrow operated as a new headquarters for the order until they were ambushed by death eaters and they had to flee. ➵ george & fred were frequent guests on lee jordan’s radio show: potterwatch. ➵ george was hit with snape’s sectumsepmra curse and ended up losing his left ear. since it was dark magic, his injury wasn’t able to be repaired. he has permanent hearing loss and a scar where his ear used to be. he’s picked up BSL (british sign language) since the incident.  ➵ he split up from the rest of his family after the death eater ambush, but remained with fred. him & fred were apart of lee jordan’s radio broadcast, potterwatch, so it’s assumed they were with lee in some way. ➵ there was an incident where george, alone, was taken in front of the wizengamot while fred had stepped out for the afternoon. he was brought on charges of aiding and abetting the mass breakout of muggleborn criminals. supposedly, they had items sold at weasley’s wizard wheezes that’d aided in their ultimate escape. ➵ questioned & tortured at the hand of umbridge, they almost sent him off to azkaban… but the department of magical law enforcement requested time to gather more evidence to build a stronger case of george’s involvement. his blood status wasn’t in question, and therefore, he was free to go. ➵ during the battle of hogwarts, george lost his twin brother, fred, in an explosion orchestrated by augustus rookwood. the years that followed were absolutely the hardest thing he’d ever gone through.  ➵ upon fred’s demise, george might have taken up a biiit of a drinking problem. while it hasn’t entirely taken over his life, some would definitely consider him a “functioning alcoholic.”  ➵ depending on a potential charlie mun, after fred’s funeral, george followed charlie to romania in order to “travel” and “find himself” without fred able to stand by his side anymore.  he eventually stole a dragon from charlie and took it across the world. goooo georgie! he returned about a year after fred’s funeral initially took place. ➵ for quite some time, george struggled to conjure a patronus. with all of his “happy memories” linked to fred, the charm became quite difficult for him to perform. of course, george is a determined individual; he continued to try anyways.  ➵ eventually, two years after fred’s passing, george was able to cast a patronus. although, instead of a cheery magpie revealing itself, a peacock took its place. this was significant because, slowly but surely, george was beginning to detach his identity from fred. ➵ george continued to build the business he’d started with his late brother. these days, he fills his time with work; occupying his mind with weasley’s wizard wheezes instead of the void fred’s passing left within him.

[ketsuyuki-hibana-typed]

It may be strange request, but...Could you make headcanons about Kyoujuro and his "future wife" when they were children. When Ruka was still alive, when Shinjurou was a Pillar?

Rengoku Kyoujurou x FutureWife!Reader

When Shinjurou came back with other human that hide behind him, little 10 years old Rengoku Kyoujurou become curious.

He jumped around that tiny human, you, who gripped Shinjurou's haori, timidly peeked up from where you stood.

"Father, who is that?"

"Ah, I haven't introduce you yet. I saved her when I was in mission."

Kyoujurou became more excited, he suddenly grabbed your hand and said, "I'm Kyoujurou! And you?"

"Hey, it's not polite to ask her out of blue like that." His father sighed. "She has been live for a long time inside the forest. She has minimum wordings. Right, (y/n)?"

You nodded, but then open your mouth

"I'm (y/n)."

Kyoujurou's face brightened. The thought of he now has sister was flooding on his head.

Kyoujurou learned that you're once was originally planned to be a sacrifice of the demons. These demons were said that they will not devour the villagers unless they give children as sacrifices every month.

The place where you born was like a camp, basically human farm. You only given with name and birthdate, not knowing who your parents is.

Until you somehow, managed to escape into the forest when they accidentally loosened the door when they're about to deliver you and the other children to the demons.

You learned human language from a rich family that live near the forest, but you quietly heard them talking without showing yourself.

And the rest of the story is survival. Hunting, making traps, stealing swords, making house. All of them was made by yourself.

Until one day, the trap you set was failed to capture the demon. Shinjurou saved you, and brought you here.

Well, actually Shinjurou was amazed by your skill, considering you're the same age as Kyoujurou and thought that potential will be a waste if he left you there (Also, a reminder that a little girl was alone inside the forest all this long time)

Ruka accepted you here, so does Shinjurou. Kyoujurou and Senjurou didn't mind either.

That's where your real life started.

You learned how to speak and act properly from Ruka. Both you and Kyoujurou were practicing together on the swordsmanship.

You learned how to feel from this family

Kyoujurou loved to take evening stroll while holding your hand after practices. He said that your hands are so warm, he thinks he could hold onto them forever.

"You know, (y/n). I think you have this- uh- this-! I don't know how to tell it, but you have this kind of aura, but I cannot describe it."

"Charm?"

"Yes, that's what Mother told me, charm!"

"No, I don't have any."

"You have! And only me who could feel them!"

Lived in the middle of upper class family probably the real definition of real wealth. But apparently not you as an Rengoku outsider. The boys and girls that has same age as you often bully or tattling you.

Kyoujurou becomes furious when he found out, and fight them, even though you always ended up saving him.

"I told you that I'm fine, I didn't take their talks with my heart." You pressed compress onto Kyoujurou's temple. He groaned in pain. "What will Ruka-sama say if she saw you like this? I should be the one who protected you."

"I- I should be the one who protect you! I'm the big bro!"

"Yes." You finished with the treatment. "And I'm indebted because Rengoku family has taken care of me, and I shall pay them back to guard their descendants."

"Wha- That's nonsense! You're our part of family!!"

You didn't listen to him anymore and walked away.

After that incident, Kyoujurou still considered you as his sister, but he never talked about your obligations to protect Rengoku.

Shinjurou always brought you gifts after missions even though he's kind of sucks on it.

"You bought her... sculpture."

"Yeah, any human being in this world like sculpture." Ruka looked at Shinjurou in disbelief.

"(y/n), I will buy you hairpin tomorrow, ok? You could threw that into trash pile or burn it down along with the leaves at he yard."

"Okaa-sama, it- it's okay! Otou-sama was right, no one in this world didn't like sculpture."

"You don't need to cheer him up."

"Ruka, you're so cold."

When Ruka was sick, you took the lead of house chores.

"I'm sorry that I burdened the tasks to you."

You helped Ruka sat down on her futon. Senjurou was peacefully sleeping on her side while Kyoujurou sat with folded feet, listened to his mother.

"Okaa-sama." You bowed. "I've pledged to serve Rengoku family. I will not disappoint you."

"You are one of my children." She let the most tender smile you ever saw in your life. "I never considered you as our guard, so does Shinjurou. You are our daughter. Come here."

You came closer to her. She hugged you into her chest, caressed your hair slowly.

This is what mother's kindness felt like, dissipates into your every well-being. It's warm and soft.

You really wished that Ruka could have longer age.

But everything was changed with quick pace when Ruka finally left this world.

On that day, you felt what sadness is, how it felt like when you holding Ruka's board name in front of the house, seeing people saying 'I'm so sorry for your lost' for many times until you became a little qualm.

But none of nags were spat out from your mouth, not even tears sheds out. You just felt sad, that's it.

Senjurou never stopped crying and Kyoujurou tried to calm his little brother. You had to step out.

"Kyoujurou, let me handle this." You told someone to hold the board, replacing you. You brought Senjurou onto your embrace, cradling him into your arms.

"Senjurou, it's okay. I'm here, Ruka-sama always been here too. She goes to yomi but her heart will always be inside us." You closed your eyes, patted Senjurou's back, wiped his tears until he fell asleep because of exhaustion.

You noticed that Kyoujurou looked at his little brother with empty eyes. You smiled towards him, opening one of your arms.

"Come here, Kyoujurou."

He trembled, slowly moved towards you.

Until he breaks down and cries his heart content out on your shoulder. You don't know how many hours you've spent, sat down there while soothing both of them simultaneously.

On that day, you swore that you will fully protect this family with your soul and body.

After that day, Shinjurou never let anyone, even his children stepped onto his room

Except you, because you managed to 'forced unconsciously" onto his guard. He only let you sat on his engawa room, talking light conversation while drinking tea and snacking.

Both you and Kyoujurou took Final Test together and become demon slayer. It didn't took him so long to be a Pillar while you're still a Kinoe.

You knew how Shinjurou reacted to Kyoujurou for being a Pillar. It really hurts you when you realized how much he changed towards this family.

But you're trying, you never give up to make this family whole again, even though it might not be the same as Ruka did.

So, that day, you asked if he could spare his time for evening stroll like you always did when you were still children.

He happily accepted your request.

Both of you stopped at grilled sweet potatoes booth, taking rest.

"Congratulations on being a Pillar." You gave him flame-motive cape. "This was Otou-sama cape, but it worn out. So i fixed it first."

He looked surprised and freeze.

"Um, it's okay of you don't like it. I know it looked-"

"NO! I WILL USE THIS!"

He wore it on his back, spinned like children testing their new clothes.

"Umu! This is great!"

"It's good to hear." You let out relieved sigh. "And-"

He sat down again, ready to hear your next words.

"Otou-sama.... Didn't mean it when he said he didn't care about you. I know that he's happy."

"It's okay! Father is always like that after all! I just had to-"

"I really mean it." You looked at him straight at his eyes with tender gaze. You reached your hand to his head, patting it. "Thank you for your hard work, Kyoujurou."

He stunned again.

It was like something snapping from inside his mind. His tears suddenly flows without warning.

You grabbed him onto your embrace, letting him cry.

You knew it's hard. It's hard for being cheerful 24/7 because he didn't want to make anyone worry.

After that, he became really close more than ever. He didn't like being called with Flame Pillar. Just call him with usual name.

Uzui realized your talent as trap maker and took you as his tsuguko, even though your breathing traits are Flame.

Kyoujurou wasn't so happy with this decision.

"I became a Pillar because I wanted to make her as my tsuguko."

"You've just BECOME a Pillar." Uzui snickered. "Don't be so cocky."

He didn't talk to Uzui until you scolded him for doing so.

Everyone was wondering why are you still not 'chasing' Kyoujurou. You made your own breath, and talented on almost everything but people just wondering why you couldn't caught up to Kyoujurou.

You never interested to become one, you only focused on rescuing orphaned children, took them into your care. The corps made orphanage for children who lost their family, and you're the one who trusted by Oyakata-sama to lead it because you could handle kids.

You're the one who brought him when he injured on demon train mission. You're the one who took care of him when he's still in comma.

When he woke up and found you holding his hand, that's when the feelings towards you changed, from a sister, to someone that should have Rengoku name as their family name.

"If you really love her, then when will you confess to her, headass. You've retired like me, but she hasn't. Who knows who she paired with while she's in mission?"

"..."

"She didn't want to be Flame Pillar even though Oyakata-sama asked her to be one after your retirement. And you know what she answered? 'I'm not a Rengoku, so I don't have obligation to take that role.' Damn, man, stubborn girl as always.

"Shut up for awhile, will you?"

"Or you wanted someone to propose to her first? Don't you know that she's popular amongst the Kinoes, even other demon slayers? She's caring, kind, good with children and strong too."

"I'll kill the-"

"Wow, keep that killing intention to yourself. The only reason why people who put their heart onto her weren't confessed yet because they knew you will rampage, knowing you as her closest related person."

Kyoujurou crosses his arms, his mind was a mess, thinking on how he could propose to you without being awkward and to avoid the dense inside your head, because you only believe that all you had to do until the rest of your life is serve and protect the Rengokus.

LIKE, LET ME LOVE YOU, LET ME FUCKING LOVE YOU WITHOUT THINKING BEING MY BODYGUARD 25/8

That's what he wanted to scream.

But he just played it cool.

Until he can't take it, or couldn't find better way to propose, so he just screamed from his top of the lung, "(y/n), PLEASE BE MY WIFE! I DON'T WANT YOU TO BE MY BODYGUARD OR CARETAKER, I WANT YOU TO BE MY WIFE! I LOVE YOU! I! LOVE! YOU!"

...he screams from outside the orphanage while you're still taking care the children.

They were giggling, teasing you when you flushed with red. His message was loud and clear this time.

And, that's how you got married.

"It's unfair because you almost knew all of me." Both of you sat down at engawa, looking at your 5 children playing around.

"We've been together for years, what are you expecting?" You let small giggle. His heart was thumped once before quickly averting his gaze to another direction. "Hm? What's wrong?"

He sighed, turning his head again and looking at your bloated stomach, ready for 6th child. He caressed it, hoping that everything going smoothly this time too. He flashed a quick smile, before kissed your temple

"It's been years and I still can't resist your charm."